Four's Problems
by Animecrazy13ify
Summary: AU. Allen Walker is a high school student from London transferring to Australia. There he must battle his way through scorching heat, weird residents, killer wildlife, stalkerish exes and three new eccentric friends all with their own array of problems. Rated T for bad language and themes.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

**2****nd**** February 2014 **

Allen Walker hated Melbourne. He hated the fashion sense of the people he had to constantly watch jogging around the park he lived across the road from and the middle aged men who thought they were really hot stuff and so dressed up in see through lycra and rode around the city on push bikes and traumatized anyone who was unfortunate enough to glance at them as they passed. He hated all the stupid trams and buses that clogged up the road and the gazillion cars that were constantly on the road, half of which seemed to be driven be selfish assholes who had never bothered to learn the road rules when they got their licences, (okay, true, maybe London had a fair share of those too). He hated the people who blatantly stared at the scar on his face and his white hair with either horrified fascination or disapproval, (sure, he got that in London too). He hated the new age architecture, most of which looked like it had been green lit by someone who had been lobotomised with a spork. He hated the sneaky parking inspectors who came along and put a ticket on your bike for being parked on a telephone pole. But, above all else, he hated the _heat._ It was February and it was thirty four degrees. Celsius! In London this kind of heat would be a national emergency, but here, these Australian freaks of nature wandered around outside in this bloody inferno like it was nothing. Allen didn't understand how they could do it. Granted, maybe him wearing a long sleeved shirt and gloves wasn't exactly helping his body temperature but he needed to hide his hideous scar.

Allen groaned and tugged at the collar of his shirt. How could it possibly be this hot at eight o clock in the morning? Even as he was walking through the park towards his new school, in the wonderful cooling shade of the trees it was still flipping hot. He abandoned his attempts to loosen his collar and focussed on just getting to the school. In the distance he could see another student moving towards the large building that took up most of the block in front of him. He had to admit, this building wasn't actually that badly designed. It was interesting, lots of windows and alcoves and pillars and….

He shook his head. Why the hell was he thinking about the architecture of a _school? _The bloody place was going to be his prison for the next four years, so he'd better spend as little time as possible _not _thinking about it. He stepped out onto the path that marked the edge of the park… and was almost mowed down by a large mob of distastefully dressed joggers.

Allen stumbled back as the group moved past him without even one apologetic glance or nod. Simultaneously marvelling at their ability to run in the heat and seething at their blatant rudeness he muttered venomously after them, "Yes, don't mind me. I don't mind getting almost trampled to death."

He checked for anymore oncoming swarms of joggers, and when he saw there were none, crossed the path and continued walking, crossing the road until he reached the entrance of the school. The first thing he noticed was the bike racks. There was a row of them spanning the front of the school that could probably have housed the bike of every student in the school. Only a few were full right now though. But he had a feeling that that was because it was still too early in the morning for many students to be here rather than the fact that it was going to be a million degrees outside today. He moved past the racks to the main doors of the building. The doors themselves weren't too impressive, being a strange vomit green colour, but the walls around them were tastefully decorated by large, colourful murals that were probably painted by the students. He had heard that Alphington Crescent High was an incredibly arty school. The only problem with the wall was that it had been tagged all over by some bloody idiot who couldn't think…

Allen stopped his stream of negative thoughts and something occurred to him. He was a total grouch when he was hot. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to put some more positive thoughts into his mind. He wanted to make at least one friendly acquaintance today and being a total asshole to everyone wasn't going to help his chances. So with that revelation, he took a deep breath and entered the building.

The foyer of the building was large, most of it taken up by a large glass windowed office and a stairwell. There were also the entrances to what looked like the canteen and the theatre and a corridor branching off to another part of the building. Allen made his way to the window of the office with the sign reading, 'Inquiries', over it. There was a woman sitting in front of the window in the office, tapping at the keyboard of a seriously outdated computer. When Allen was standing in front of her, she looked up and scowled at him. She had a face that was pinched in a way that looked like she had just swallowed a glass of unsugared lemon juice.

"Yes?" she snapped. Allen managed to put on a weak smile and said, "Hello, I'm new here and so I was wondering…"

"Year sevens are to wait outside until the bell rings!" she snapped at him, "Your teacher will tell you what to do then. Now go away!"

Allen frowned. Was asking a question that much of a crime? He put the smile back on his face and said, "Actually, I'm not a year seven. I believe I'm in year nine. I transferred from London."

The woman looked up at him again and gave him a look that clearly said, _'What do you want me to do about it?' _before she sighed in an exasperated fashion and huffed, "Fine. Let me look you up."

_Don't interpret that as something wrong Allen, that's disgusting, _Allen thought to himself as the woman made several rapid clicks with her mouse. After a minute or two of hovering awkwardly by the window the woman snapped irritably, "Name?"

"Uh- Allen Walker," he replied. She glanced at the screen and the back at him, looking even more irritated (if that was possible) as she shot back, "No, Uhallen Walkers on this list."

"No, my name's Allen Walker."

"For God's sake, speak up boy! Can barely hear you!" she practically screamed at him then gave the list another once over. She seemed to find his name and clicked on it. She then reached under her desk and pulled out a lock, a spiral bound diary and a piece of paper. She handed them to him and said brusquely, "You're locker's on the third floor. Go up the stairs, turn right then turn right again. Instructions on how to use the lock is on the paper. If you can't figure it out ask another student. All year nines are to report to their homerooms once the first bell goes. Yours is room 210. Use the map in your diary to find it. Your locker's up near the VCE area so make sure not to disturb any of the students studying. Oh and there's a note on the back of the instruction paper from the locker people. Might want to read that."

With that she turned back to the computer in a way that clearly said that the conversation was over. Allen offered her a nod, wondering what this 'VCE' was, before starting up the stairs. On the second floor he passed what looked like a massive library. He made a mental note to check it out later. The library at his school in London hadn't been that great but that one looked good. He loved reading.

Once he was on the third floor he followed the office lady's directions and turned right. He passed numerous rows of lockers until he came to the end of the corridor. He turned right again and found that the entire right side of the corridor was lined with lockers with a couple of breaks for classroom doors, and the left side was covered by windows. Through them he could see the rooftops of the neighbourhood. He glanced down at the paper in his hand.

"Locker 122," he said quietly to himself, slowly moving along the row, scanning for the right number. It was a middle locker, about halfway down the corridor. Just before he opened it, he remembered the note the office lady had mentioned and flipped over the paper and read it.

_To whomever acquires this locker, _it read, _We apologise very deeply for this. We tried to give you another locker but unfortunately there weren't any others. In order to survive this ordeal you must follow these rules:_

_When he comes to his locker, move. Don't get in his way._

_If you arrive and he's already at his locker, wait your turn. Just stand quietly to the side and be patient._

_This is the most important rule: DO NOT touch ANY of his things. Even if he drops something and you're handing it to him, just don't. He will cause grievous bodily harm to anyone who does._

_We thank you for your cooperation and good luck on your endeavour,_

_Kind regards,_

_The Locker Staff._

Allen had to reread the note to make sure he wasn't seeing things. This was the strangest note he had ever received from a school in his life. It was possibly even stranger then that time in primary school when he had been given a note from his teacher saying he had to change class because his white hair reminded one of the other students too much like bird shit and made said student feel sick every time said student looked at him. God, it had been a task to get Cross to sign that one. Not because his godfather was to protective of him to sign, but because the stupid bastard had been laughing too hard.

Allen shrugged and then read the instructions on how to work the lock. He'd been given his combination and a few quick diagrams on what way to turn the lock. It looked simple enough. However, five minutes later, it was revealed that this lock was not simple enough. He had been able to shove his bag in easily enough, but the lock refused to open. After another couple of frustrating minutes, he slammed his hand into the locker above his with a growl of, "Bloody hell!"

"Oi!" a voice shouted down the corridor, "The fuck are you doing to my locker?"

Allen turned to see a tall Asian youth striding down the corridor towards him, a menacing look on his face. He was dressed in a black t-shirt and black jeans, his feet clad in black boots. He had incredibly long black hair tied back in a ponytail. His dark eyes were glinting dangerously and he looked like he was just about ready to murder him, but Allen had to admit he was a seriously handsome guy.

"Uh, I'm sorry," he said nervously as the boy reached him and stood looming over him, "It's just I'm new here and I got a bit frustrated with my lock. I didn't mean to…"

"Do I look like I give a fuck about your problems?" snapped the boy, "Because from where I'm standing, it looked like you were trying to break into my locker. And why would you want to break into my locker, unless you wanted to steal my shit?"

"No. You've got it all wrong, I swear I wasn't going to take your things!" said Allen, holding up his hands. Kanda's frown turned to one of slight confusion as he said, "Wait… Year seven's aren't supposed to be up here this early dipshit. Get the fuck down to the second floor and steal other shrimps' shit."

Allen black mood from outside returned. "I'm not a year seven!" he snapped, "I'm a year nine! Why does everyone make that mistake?!"

"Maybe because you're a subatomic shrimp? Don't think for a second that I'm buying your bullshit. No year nine could be that small. You're just some fucking little British newbie who thought he could steal some shit when no one was looking."

"I am a British newbie but I'm not a year seven. I'm just a transfer…"

"Shut the fuck up. Jesus Christ you're so fucking annoying, with your stupid white hair, and your stupid face and why the fuck are you wearing a long sleeve?"

Allen snapped. "At least I don't look like a girl. What, you a trannie on the weekend or something?"

The boy's fist came towards Allen's face so fast he barely had time to duck. He actually felt it skim over the top of his head as he slid down to the ground before it slammed into the locker next to the one above his. And it left a dent. There was an honest-to-god _dent _in the metal of the locker.

"Christ," Allen said weakly, before he scrambled out of the way of the foot that sailed towards his head. He stumbled to his feet and started backing away, stuttering, "W-wait a minute! Let's just calm down now…"

The boy ignored him and tried to punch him again but Allen backed up out of reach. Then, to his amazement, the boy spun his leg up and executed a spinning kick that would've probably knocked Allen out if he hadn't ducked. The youth then stepped forward and kicked his leg up. Allen bent backwards so it wouldn't connect with his chin and watched, shocked as the leg kept going until it was practically parallel with the boy's body. God he was _flexible_.

"Bloody hell!" he exclaimed as he stumbled away again, "Are you made of rubber or something?"

"Shut the fuck up. I hate your stupid fucking accent," snarled the boy before he darted forward with astonishing speed and grabbed his collar. He then swung the smaller boy around and slammed him into the locker.

"Owww…" Allen moaned as pain shot through his head. The boy's grip tightened on his collar as he growled, "So you turn up to school, make a shit tonne of noise in the study area, try to fuck with my locker and call me a girl. I'm not sure whether you have a fucking death wish or whether you're just a moron."

"Neither you prick," hissed Allen, "I tried to explain my situation…"

"Fuck your situation," snapped the boy… and a textbook smacked him over the head.

"Enough Kanda," said a feminine voice beside them, "Honestly, can't you go _one day _without getting into a fight?"

Allen looked over to his saviour gratefully. It was a girl, only a little taller than he was. She was Asian and was dressed in a black t-shirt with a red stripe over one shoulder, and was wearing a ruffled short pink skirt with a large belt that was decorated with numerous lucky charms. Her feet were clad in black knee-high boots. Her long black hair was tied back in two long ponytails and her pretty face wore an exasperated expression.

"If people stopped fucking with me then maybe I wouldn't," snapped the boy. Allen frowned. She'd called him Kanda. It fitted him.

"He's just a year eight Kanda. Let him go," said the girl calmly. After a moment's hesitation, much to Allen's surprise, Kanda released him, grumbling, "Don't see how it's any of your business."

"Thank you," Allen said, addressing the girl, "I'm Allen Walker and I'm actually in year nine."

"Oh, sorry. You look younger than that. I'm Lenalee Lee. I haven't seen you around before. Are you new?" asked the girl, smiling sheepishly.

"Yeah, I just transferred from London. Are you in year nine as well?" he asked. Lenalee shook her head and replied, "No, year ten. When did you-"

"Are you both done sweet talking each other," interrupted Kanda irritably, "How did you find us by the way? I swear sometimes I think you've got some sort of fucking sensor built into you so you can find me."

"I could hear you from all the way down the corridor. You were being really loud," replied Lenalee.

"That is correct, and speaking of that matter…" a voice announced from down the corridor, "I believe that I need to speak to you about the noise issue Kanda."

The three teens turned to see a man, probably only in his early twenties approaching them, a none-too-pleased expression on his face. His shoulder length blonde hair was tied back in a short plait and his grey suit was impeccably ironed and completely free of lint or stains. There were two red dots vertically parallel to each other, tattooed into his forehead. Allen recognised him immediately. He was one of the main reasons he had been able to get into this school so easily.

"Good morning Mr Link," said Lenalee cheerfully as Allen greeted, "Hello Link. Haven't seen you for a while."

"You know the vice principle?" asked Lenalee curiously. Allen nodded in reply. Kanda just stood there scowling at the approaching man. Once Link reached them he said, "Good morning Miss Lee. Hello Walker, nice to see you," his expression then turned on Kanda and his frown deepened, "As for you Kanda. You seem to have forgotten that this is an important study area for students in your year level and in year twelve. Making so much noise in the corridor is distracting them from their precious study time."

"First of all, the only reason I started that fight was because the fucking _moyashi _here was trying to steal my shit and making a fucking racket doing so. Second of all, it's the first fucking day. No one's studying yet because we don't even know what we're fucking studying yet," snapped Kanda. Allen felt his eyes widen. He talked like that to _everyone_? Even the teachers? And what on earth was a _moyashi_?

As Link started to snap back an angry retort, Lenalee leaned over to Allen and said, "You should go. This could go on for a while."

"But, uh…" Allen held out his lock to her as both Kanda and Link's volume started rising as they got more and more angry, "I can't figure out my lock."

"Oh, that's easy. Give me your combo," replied Lenalee kindly, taking the lock from him. Allen told her and she had it open in five seconds. She handed it back to him and he locked his locker. She then shooed him away down the corridor with a whisper of, "If you need any help with it later, everyone else at this school is nice and will help you. Kanda's just a jerk and he gets even worse in the heat. Now go on. I'll handle things here."

He did what he told her without much protest. He shook his head as he made his way towards the stairs. If that was how his morning had started out, what was the rest of his day going to be like? 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**2****nd**** February 2014 **

Allen collapsed onto the carpeted floor of the alcove under the main stairs. He was exhausted. Somehow he had managed to battle his way through the first four periods of the day and it was now lunchtime, thank god. Allen opened the large green felt bag he had with him and pulled out a sandwich. He unwrapped it and swallowed it in two bites.

Thankfully, Lenalee had been right when it came to the fact about most other students in the school being friendly. Once he had found his way to his homeroom once the bell rang, he had introduced himself to the rest of his home class of 9F. Once he had introduced he had been bombarded with the usual questions. _Why do you wear your hair like that? Where did you get that scar? How are you not roasting in those clothes? Did you come from England? Where did you come from in England? What was school like in London? _Etcetera, etcetera. It got very tedious after a while but he got through it. Then they had been given timetables and a few announcements had been made and once the bell rang they had all trooped off to second period.

Second period consisted of the torturous repetition of the endless exercises of maths. Allen was good at maths but by god the subject was boring at times. At least his teacher was entertaining. He was a blonde haired teacher that hailed from Western Australia and went by the name of Reever. He refused to tell them his last name because apparently he couldn't risk anyone knowing it. Allen couldn't tell if he was kidding or if he was _actually _a suspicious person.

Then there was recess that had flashed past in a confusing whirl of ten million students, trying to find his way to the entrance of the library and tripping and scattering his books down the stairs. And of course, no one could be bothered to help him pick them up again. He had then remembered why he hated a good portion of the human race.

Third and fourth periods had been science and humanities. Humanities consisted of their incredibly boring teacher listing off numerous random facts about the First Australians whilst the class slowly vanished into the depths of boredom. In science their teacher was a Mr Komui Lee. His last name made Allen wonder if he was related to Lenalee. When he asked about it, he had been very surprised when the usually nice teacher had suddenly taken on a menacing aura and had threatened to disembowel him if he dared to touch his precious Lenalee. Allen had backed away slowly, promising that he wouldn't touch her and then had ran from the classroom like hell was chasing him. He was an overprotective guardian then.

Allen sighed and groped around inside his bag for a while, looking for more food. All he encountered though were empty wrappers. It seemed he had finished all his food whilst reminiscing. He let out an even larger, more frustrated sigh. He had to make a mental note to himself to pack a larger lunch. His head slumped forward onto his chest. It was still too hot.

"Hey, hey, hey!" said a loud cheerful voice as someone suddenly materialized out of nowhere and threw themselves down next to him, causing Allen to jump violently. He turned to the person… and stared.

The boy sitting next to him had an… _unusual _fashion sense to say the least. He was dressed in long black skinny jeans that had had numerous repair jobs done to them except none of those repair jobs had been done with black fabric, giving the impression that the boy was wearing pants made out of a patchwork quilt. He was wearing calf high Doc Martins laced with fluorescent pink and yellow laces and covered in tiny green scribbles that looked hand drawn. Allen had to wonder how the boy wasn't in detention at the moment because his black t-shirt read in white block lettering: F K THE POLICE. On his hands he wore black fingerless gloves. His hair was an incredibly bright red and was being pushed back by a sparkly silver fish scale bandanna. Two large hoop earrings dangled from his ears and his right eye was covered by a black eye patch. His left eye was an amazing bright green and was staring at Allen with a mischievous glint.

Allen couldn't stop staring at this boy for two reasons. The first was that the boy's red hair was unfortunately reminding him of a certain alcoholic, womanizing, child-abandoning godfather that he knew. The second was: he was a total hottie.

"Dude, you okay there?" asked the boy, grinning. Allen noticed, rather embarrassedly, that he had been staring at him with his mouth open. The boy's grinned widened and he said arrogantly, "Well I wouldn't be surprised if you've fallen hopelessly in love with me at first sight. I tend to have that effect on people."

The boy had a thick American accent. Allen shut his mouth with a snap and flushed before saying indignantly, "No- No I just- I didn't mean- I'm not in love with you!"

"Sure, sure whatever. But anyway- Wait. Are you _British?_" asked the boy, his playful expression turning to one of curiosity. Allen hesitated before replying, "Uh, yes?"

"Oh my god that's so _awesome!_ You've got, like, the _accent _and stuff!" the boy suddenly lunged forward and grabbed on to Allen's thigh, causing Allen to give a little squeak of alarm, "So! I heard that you took on Yuu this morning. Wow dude, that's kind of awesome, but more really fucking stupid then awesome," he looked at Allen dubiously and asked, "You're not, like, suicidal or anything are you?"

"Of-of course not!" stuttered Allen, still focussed on the hands that were gripping to his leg like limpets. The boy grinned and replied, "Just checking, just checking. So anyway, you probably shouldn't take him on again because Yuu goes like, fucking insane at the drop of a pin so-"

"Please wait for a moment," interrupted Allen, successfully removing the boy's hands, "First of all, who are you exactly?"

"God, I fucking love your accent man. It's like all… _British _and stuff. But anyway, I'm Lavi. Lavi Bookmen," he held out and hand to shake and as Allen held out his he slapped it in a high-five that made the white haired boy's palm sting.

" And, uh, who's you? That doesn't even make any sense," asked Allen, thoroughly confused by the American's antics. Lavi grinned and said, "Well you know-"

He was cut off when a copy of 'Advanced Maths Year 11 Edition' smacked into his head. Lavi howled in pain and gripped his head. Shocked Allen leaned forward and started to ask if he was alright when he was cut off by the sound of a familiar voice saying, "Shut the fuck up rabbit, no one fucking cares about what you have to say."

With a sinking feeling Allen looked up to see Kanda standing at the top of the stair leading down into the alcove, a scowl on his face. Allen was beginning to suspect that was the only expression his face was capable of forming. When he saw Allen his scowl deepened and he snapped, "Oh fucking hell, why the fuck's the _moyashi _doing here?"

That word again. Allen knew it was probably offensive except his couldn't look it up because he didn't even know what language it was. Lavi made a groaning noise beside him and muttered, "Do you have to be so violent?"

"Yes," growled Kanda before moving over and sitting down on the step across from them. He had a plastic container in his hand and when he opened it Allen saw that it contained what looked like noodles.

"The fuck are you staring at brat?" snapped Kanda bearing a pair of chopsticks in his hand threateningly. Allen sniffed and replied, "Nothing. Why are you so hostile?"

"Because I hate you," replied Kanda and started to eat. Lavi suddenly sat up very straight, a big grin on his face, apparently recovered from his injury.

"Hey, guess what?" he said excitedly. Kanda studiously ignored him but he continued anyway, "This guy's _British!_"

"Fucking brilliant Holmes. What tipped you off?" replied Kanda without looking up from his food.

"The accent man! It's so British and… and… I don't know, British, you know? I've never heard a real life British person speak, like, in person. I've only heard them on TV," said Lavi dreamily. Kanda looked up and deadpanned, "There are about ten fucking other British students at our school dipshit. Three are in your year."

"Really. Holy shit, I didn't know that. Three? Really?"

"I don't fucking know. I was guessing."

Lavi shrugged and said nonchalantly, "Yeah but I don't talk to them. I'm talking to this guy. He's awesome don't you think?"

"No. He's a fuckwit and a _moyashi_ and tried to steal shit from locker."

"I am sitting right here you know!" snapped Allen. Kanda glared at him and replied, "And I don't fucking care."

"Aw, don't worry guy," said Lavi cheerfully, slinging an arm around Allen's shoulder causing him to stiffen again, "He's just jealous because you just replaced him as my Biffle."

"Point number one: We are not 'Biffles' and I think it's fucking stupid that you even use that word, abbreviation, whatever the fuck it is," snapped Kanda, mimicking Lavi's accent on the word 'Biffles', "And second point: Do you even know what the fuck the _moyashi's _name is?"

"No. I didn't think it was important because he's, you know, British," replied Lavi as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Kanda slapped his hand against his forehead. Lavi pouted and said sulkily, "Well do _you _know his name?"

"Why the fuck would I know?"

"Good point," said Lavi thoughtfully, "So do you know who knows his name so I can ask them?"

Allen stared at him incredulously. He couldn't tell if he was joking, a space cadet or just plain stupid. Allen supposed that he could forgive the boy's inability to think because he was so hot but…

"Just messing with you kid," said Lavi, grinning, "So. What's your name?"

"Uh, Allen Walker," replied Allen, slightly relieved. Lavi's eyes widened and he said excitedly, "Say that again man!"

"Um, my name's Allen Walker?"

Lavi letting out a high-pitched squealing noise that made both Allen and Kanda flinch.

"Fuck!" snapped Kanda, rubbing at his ears, "Burst my eardrums why don't you?'

"I'm sorry. It's just that… the way he said it, was all, British, and stuff. Made me all shivery. In a nice way. Wouldn't you agree?" replied Lavi with a smile. Allen frowned, not quite sure what to make of that statement whilst Kanda sneered and said, "Che! I think it's a fucking boring name for a fucking boring _moyashi_."

"Okay, what does that bloody word mean?!" shouted Allen, "I don't know what it means but I know it's something offensive because you're such a predictable rude prick who seems to hate me for no apparent reason!"

Before Kanda could shout back an angry reply, a voice said behind him, "_Moyashi _means 'bean sprout' in Japanese."

Allen averted his gaze from Kanda and watched as Lenalee sat down next to the crabby Asian teen. Kanda glared at her and snapped, "How would you know that?"

She shrugged and replied, "I studied Japanese for a while. I picked up a few things," she smiled at Allen and said, "Hi Allen. Fitting in alright?"

"For the most part," Allen said sheepishly. He then glared at Kanda and snapped, "And for your information, I'm not short! I'm averaged sized."

Kanda's head abruptly jerked forward so that his face was facing downwards, screened by his hair. He then started having… shoulder spasms. His shoulders started raising and dropping in a strange jerky fashion and his whole body started trembling. Allen stared at him strangely.

"Is he alright?" asked Allen, frowning, "Is he having a fit? If he is, don't help him. Hopefully he'll die."

"No man, Yuu's just laughing," replied Lavi with a chuckle. Kanda suddenly sprang into motion and grabbed Lavi by the collar and growled through gritted teeth, "Do not. Call. Me. _That._"

Lavi, slightly choking, managed to hold up his hands in defeat and Kanda let him drop. Allen pointed at Kanda and asked, "Wait a minute. You're you? Why're you, you?"

"Yuu is Kanda's first name Allen," explained Lenalee. Allen looked surprised, "Kanda's his last name? Why don't people call him Yuu then?"

"He hates it when people call him that," replied Lenalee. Kanda rounded on Allen and snapped, "What she said _moyashi_. So unless you want me to bash your face in…"

"It's Allen," deadpanned Allen, "And do calm down. I happen to value my life."

"Wise move Allen," said Lavi from the ground, giving him a thumbs up. Kanda sneered and sat down again. Lenalee smiled at him and then said to Allen, "Allen, I don't mean to pry but why are you wearing those clothes? Aren't you hot? I normally wouldn't ask but I'm kind of worried that you're going to pass out from a heat stroke."

Allen's shoulders sagged, "Please don't remind me."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

**2****nd**** February 2014**

"Too hot… Too hot…" muttered Allen as he slowly made his way across the park along with the stream of other students. He had finally been released from his prison and was making his way home. There were still people jogging. _Still._ How had they all not dropped dead by now? A couple of girls walked past him talking amongst themselves dressed in t-shirts and shorts. Allen envied them. He would have been wearing cooler clothing as well but his scarred arm was utterly hideous and would have garnered too many stares if he had.

He sighed as he waited for the lights to change so he could cross the busy road on the other side of the park. He could see his apartment building from here, and he made a mental note to thank Cross for renting an apartment so close to his school. He then remembered that Cross was the one who had dragged him away from his lovely, lovely England to this furnace and then subsequently abandoned him and he went back to wishing a thousand wasp stings upon the man.

As he crossed a side street to reach the foot path of his own street, four year seven boys on bicycles hurtled past him, one of them barely avoiding running over him. They then proceeded to ride up the wrong side of the road, almost get hit by a car and remain blissfully unaware of all of their surroundings. Allen ground his teeth together, tempted to take a leaf out of Kanda's book and shout obscenities after them, but resisted and kept walking, knowing that he had more class than that stupid oaf and imitating him would bring him down to his level. He instead thought to himself, _Stay calm Allen, you must look at life from those boys' perspectives and remember what you were like at that age. Okay, you were a very respectable young man and nothing like them but you must remember that they are stupid and naïve and likely don't have a brain inside their stupid little skulls…_

By this stage, Allen had reached his apartment building. It was a squat, brown brick building surrounded by a very odd, scraggly garden. The body corporate people of their building had hired numerous different landscape designers over a very short period of time to try to map out what they wanted their garden to be, but then no one could decide what design they wanted so they spliced them all together. The result was a native Australian cross tropical hotel cross fruit orchard cross bed full of weeds that had been sprayed with weed killer. Allen reckoned that he could've asked a two year old to do a drawing of a garden and it would turn out better than the plans the drips of body corporate had green lit.

As he passed it he glanced quickly into the grilled garage that made up the majority of the ground floor. There was no car parked in his apartment's car port. Cross hadn't miraculously returned then.

Grumbling, Allen threw open the first of the two doors that lead into the building and fumbled with his keys to open the second. Once inside the foyer, he was engulfed by the wonderful coolness of the building. Sighing happily he collapsed on the floor and rolled around a bit, revelling in the amazing coolness. He suddenly heard the sound of a door opening and one of the other tenants of the building, a young woman, came down the stairs. She froze when she caught sight of Allen, who sat up hastily, heat coming to his cheeks.

"Um, I can explain…" he started weakly but the woman just tucked her head to her chest and scuttled past him and out the front door, a slightly terrified expression on her face. Allen got to his feet, muttering, "So much for making friends with the neighbours…"

He then mounted the stairs and climbed up one storey to the solid-looking door marked with a brass number one. He inserted his key into the locked and had to half kick the door open, seeing that half of it was falling off and making it stick in the frame. It was a little warmer inside the apartment then in the foyer (Allen's apartment didn't have air-conditioning) but it wasn't unbearable.

There was a yip and a yellow blur came hurtling around the corner and flew at Allen, almost knocking him over. He regained his balance and grinned, kneeling down and ruffling the ears of his vanilla Labrador puppy Timcampy.

"Hello Tim," said Allen fondly, "Have a good day? Well I can almost guarantee that your day was better than mine."

He stood up and walked over to the large red L-shaped couch that took up a quarter of the large lounge room. In another corner was used to be his godfather's study (Allen had commandeered it) and another was where the TV (out of commission due to unpaid bills), landline (also out of commission due to unpaid bills) and stereo were. But the thing that took up the most space in the room by the enormous grand piano that had somehow been navigated up the stairs and through the door and then had been crammed up against the wall and subsequently forgotten. For some reason Cross had insisted on dragging the damn thing all the way from London, but neither of them even played the piano. Oh well. The inner workings of his godfather's mind were a mystery to him.

Allen made his way to the small kitchen, Timcampy at his heels, and made himself an enormous bowl piled high full of all sorts of foods. Most people would have called this gluttony, but Allen preferred to call it creative eating.

Once his meal was ready he moved back out into the lounge room and started devouring the food, tossing scraps to Timcampy who had jumped up to sit next to his owner. Through bites, Allen said to the dog, "Tim, sorry boy but I'm going to have to unload on you about my Australian school, okay?"

"Woof," said Timcampy. Allen tossed him a biscuit and grinned, "That's a good boy. Now, where to begin? Oh yes, before the school I have a theory about Australians. You see, they seem to be able to function perfectly well in all kinds of heat, which to me is like a superhuman ability. I doubt they're all aliens, so my theory is that they're a bit like dogs. Don't give me that look, hear me out here. What I think is that they let enormous amounts of heat off through the pores in their skin, kind of like dogs do when they pant, you see?"

"Woof," said Timcampy. Allen sighed and said, "Yes boy, I know you want to hear about my day. It didn't start off so great. The lady at the office acted like I'd tried to kill her children or something and I have a complete psychopath above me in the lockers. His name's Yuu Kanda but don't call him you or he'll kick you into next month. He's a complete asshole and so if you ever see him Tim, bite him on the ankle and don't let go. If you need a description he's Asian, tall, with really long black hair and a face like a dead pigeon. Also, he'll probably yell at you because… oh I don't know, everything seems to set his temper off."

"Woof," said Timcampy in a slightly more menacing way. Allen grinned and tossed him another food scrap, continuing, "Good boy. Luckily I managed to make a friendly acquaintance who seems to be the only person who can vaguely keep Mr Psycho under control. She's a lovely young lady called Lenalee Lee and I believe that we're almost friends. Almost. I need to get to know her a bit more before we can be officially considered friends. Unfortunately she also has a very strange relative who also happens to be my science teacher who's generally very nice, but the minute someone even mentions Lenalee he turns into a raging demon of hell and threatens to melt the entire class with acid. I think he might be a bit bipolar. What do you think?"

"Woof," said Timcampy. Allen nodded and replied, "I agree. Then I suppose I better tell you about Lavi. Let me just say first, he is a TOTAL hottie. God, he's all red hair, green eye and long muscled limbs," he sighed dreamily and then frowned and said, "But he's a complete spastic. I don't know whether he'd eaten a lot of sugar, or drunk a lot of coffee or whether he was high, but he was just full of energy and came across as more than a little bit odd. Kind of what I would imagine a squirrel would be like if it could talk. But he was funny and I quite liked him and he seemed to like me. He doesn't really understand the concept of personal space though," he frowned, "Come to think of it, I didn't find out what year he was in. I presume he's in the same year as that pillock Kanda."

"Woof," said Timcampy sceptically. Allen looked appalled and exclaimed, "No! God no! I swore to you and to myself that I would not make that mistake again! Not after…" he shuddered, "Not after the last time."

"Woof," said Timcampy. Allen gave him a warm smile and said gently, "I know you're worried about me boy but it's alright. It's a new country, I'm starting over, and… I've grown up since then. Learnt a few things," he laughed and said, "You know, I should probably make some friends or find some help seeing that I'm using my dog as a councillor. But, you're the best friend I could ask for."

"Woof," said Timcampy.

* * *

**A/N: Shorter chapter than usual but oh well, more to come! Thanks to everyone for following, favouriting and reviewing. I've never had this much popularity with a story before and for your likingness, I am eternally grateful. School is eating up my life but I will try to keep the chapters coming.**

**Just to let you all know, I have nothing against Australians. I myself am Australian and just thought that this fanfic would be the perfect opportunity to poke fun at my nationality. Heh, my faith in my country...**

**Until next time everyone! **


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

**3****rd**** February 2014**

Allen stood in amongst the many rows of books in the library at his school. The shelves weren't very high but there were a lot of them, forming a large, confusing labyrinth of knowledge. Allen was currently standing in the fiction section, browsing the shelves for something to read. He had realised the previous night that he couldn't be as liberal with his use of the internet as he had been back home, partly due to the absence of his child abandoning godfather, but mainly due to the fact that he was currently unemployed. But he couldn't get a job yet because his citizenship was still being processed. He really couldn't understand why it took sixty days to process his application.

And so, he had to be very stingy with his internet use until he entered employment again, and so he had decided to find a book to read in his spare time. There were only so many times you could re watch your personal DVD collection. And then, when he was re watching, Allen had to be very careful when going through the DVDs because Cross had the unfortunate habit of stashing his porn DVDs inside the covers of other movies. Allen had never forgotten the unfortunate time back in London when he had been home alone (Cross was off gallivanting around the city) and had put on Casablanca for no other reason other than he was bored and he liked the movie. He had been more than shocked when the image had come up in colour and rather indecent noises had starting blasting through the speakers at full volume. Allen had jumped so badly he had dropped the remote and the batteries had come out, rendering it useless. After much panicking and fumbling about, he had lunged across the room and pulled out the power cords to both the DVD player and the TV. He had gotten some very strange looks from the neighbours the next day.

Allen huffed at the memory. That had been one of the more embarrassing moments he had had in Cross's care but there had been oh so many more since then so he was basically used to it by now.

"Hellooooo," said a voice right in his ear. Allen let out a squeak and jumped forward, colliding with the bookcase. He spun around to see who had snuck up on him and saw Lavi grinning at him.

_Goddammit he's hot, _was Allen's immediate thought, before he shook his head and said meekly, "Um, good morning. You know, you really shouldn't scare people like that."

Lavi laughed and chuckled, "I love your accent dude. But yeah, sorry about that. Couldn't resist," he glanced at the bookshelf and asked, "Whatcha lookin' for?"

"Oh, just… something to read," replied Allen, shrugging. Lavi raised an eyebrow and smirked, "Looking for something to read in a _library_? I never would have guessed."

Allen rolled his eyes and said, "Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit you know."

"But it's so damn entertaining!" exclaimed Lavi. Allen smiled again and then asked, "You're friends with Kanda, aren't you?"

Lavi looked thoughtful before replying, "I suppose so, yes. Why?"

"Well, just wondering, but does he hate me for any apparent reason?"

"No. He just hates everyone."

"Does he have a particular hatred towards gay people or cross dressers?"

Lavi frowned and said, "No. As I said, he just hates everyone. And he's an incredibly forward person. He just says whatever comes to his mind and he doesn't care who he offends when he says it," Lavi then looked sympathetic and said, "But you know, sorry if you're interested but I'm pretty sure he's straight."

"Oh good lord, no way! Ew, no, he's _so _not my type! Who could ever find that prick attractive?! Ugh," exclaimed Allen and was shushed by several people nearby. Lavi grinned at him and said, "So you admit that you swing that way?"

"Oh, erm…" Allen felt suddenly awkward. He barely knew Lavi and they were already on the topic of his sexuality. He sighed. Might as well be honest and Lavi didn't seem like the type to judge.

"I kind of swing both ways," said Allen, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. Lavi suddenly let out and shout of, "HALLEJUAH SWEET BABY JESUS IS THE OWL IN THE CAN!" and sunk down to his knees with his arms in the air, his hands forming rock-on symbols. There was a rash of shushes and Allen flushed with embarrassment and hissed, "What was that for?"

"Sorry man," said Lavi, getting to his feet and grinning like he'd just won the lottery, "I'm just overwhelmingly happy that I've got a chance with a _British _person!"

"Oh okay- Wait, what?"

"I was hoping that you either gay or bi so I could have a chance with you, cause you know, I'm like head over heels man!"

Allen stared at him for a very long time and then shook his head, saying, "I'm going to guess that your joking, because if not I may have to vacate the area very quickly."

"Oh come on, don't be like that…" started Lavi but was interrupted by a sudden crash from the aisle next to them, which was followed by numerous murderous murmurs from the shelves around them.

"Uh oh! Come on Brit! Thunderbird one to the rescue!" announced Lavi, sticking his arms out to his sides like wings and then running around the corner of the shelf making airplane noises. Allen cringed and, for reasons unbeknownst to himself, followed him. When he rounded the shelf he saw Lavi helping a short, brown haired woman wearing a black dress out of a pile of books.

"You right there Miss Miranda?" asked Lavi as the woman got to her feet. She looked on the verge of crying as she stared at the fallen books.

"Oh, I'm such a clutz. I try to put one book away and look what happens," her eyes welled up with tears, "I'm so worthless…"

Allen immediately felt that panicking feeling he always got when he was confronted with someone else's emotional problems. His mind immediately went into overdrive, _Crap! What do I do? What does anyone do in the situation of comforting a stranger? What did Cross say I should do? Wait, why would I listen or practise __**anything **__Cross told me to do!? Oh crap, oh crap…_

Luckily, it seemed that Lavi had it covered. He patted the woman on the shoulder and said gently, "Hey, cheer up Miss Miranda. It's not a big deal. Look Allen and I will help you."

Allen plastered a smile onto his face as the woman looked up at him and sniffed, "Are you a new student? I haven't seen you around here before."

Lavi slapped his forehead and exclaimed, "Of course! You two don't know each other yet! Allen, this is the school librarian, Miss Miranda Lotto. Miss Miranda, this is Allen Walker, my boyfriend to be!"

"It's a pleasure to- Wait. I am not!" exclaimed Allen, flushing as he glared at the red head. Lavi laughed and replied, "Aah, you cannot speak for the future Allen, it is so uncertain!"

"You were just- Never mind. I'm not going to bother. Anyway, it's a pleasure to meet you Miss Miranda. And please don't listen to anything that idiot says, he doesn't know what he's talking about," said Allen, smiling at Miranda who offered a weak smile back.

"Idiot?! I am _wounded _Allen! My heart is bleeding!" said Lavi dramatically.

"You might want to get that checked out then," deadpanned Allen as he moved forward and started picking books up off the floor. Miranda immediately started stuttering, "Oh no, you don't have to help me! I don't want to inconvenience you or-"

"It's no trouble," said Allen lightly. Lavi nodded in agreement and knelt down to help. This made Miranda even more flustered and she squeaked, "No, not you too Lavi! I don't want to take time out of your study schedule! It's your final year and you really shouldn't waste your time on me…"

"Relax Miss Miranda," chuckled Lavi, "It's only the second day. We've barely got any work right now."

Allen looked up in surprise and asked, "It's your final year?"

"Yep. One more year and then I'm outta here! Can't wait. Gonna miss this library though," replied Lavi, shooting a grin at Miranda. The librarian sighed and said, "It's going to be strange not having you around Lavi. You've come in every day since you transferred. I'm going to miss your company."

"Aww, thanks Miss Miranda," said Lavi happily. As Allen stacked books onto the shelf he asked, "Where did you transfer from?"

"San Francisco," he replied as they waved goodbye to Miranda who had shooed them away insisting she could do it herself, "Moved here with my grandpa at the start of last year."

"Oh. I thought you'd been here longer."

"Why?"

"Just the way you seemed to be so close to Kanda. I thought that it would take years to warm up to that guy."

"You seem to talk about Yuu a lot. You sure you don't have the hots for him? Cause if that's true I may have to, like, try to kill him or something but then I'd die a horrible bloody death and-"

"What are you going on about?"

"God, I seriously love your accent. But anyway, all it takes to warm up to Yuu is a lot of persistence and a high pain tolerance. And also, maybe he and Lenalady bond with people who transfer from overseas. Kindred spirit, you know?"

"They transferred too?"

"Yeah. Lenalady moved here with her brother from China when she was like, midgety or something, and Yuu moved about three years ago."

"Why doesn't he have an accent then?"

"He decided to drop it."

"What?"

"He decided to drop his accent."

"You can't just _drop _your accent."

"Trust me man, once Yuu sets his mind on something, he _will_ succeed, or else bitches gonna pay."

"Bitches?"

Lavi shrugged, "People in his general vicinity," he suddenly looked completely horrified and grabbed onto the white haired boy's shoulder, exclaiming, "Holy shit man, I totally forgot to ask if you're like, religious or something."

Allen raised an eyebrow and asked, "Why do you need to know?"

"Cause, you know, religious people don't like swearing and shit. And I've been swearing like fucking crazy around you."

Allen stared at him for a minute before saying slowly, "I'm going to let the irony of that statement sink in for a minute. But to answer your question, no, I'm not."

"Oh thank the sweet baby cheeks of the lord! I thought I was lowering my chances with you or something," sighed Lavi, relief showing on his face.

"You don't have any chances with me," said Allen bluntly, though he smiled whilst he said it.

_So not true, _said a voice in the back of his mind. He ignored it.

* * *

**A/N: I got a message from a guest saying I might've gone too far in some of Kanda's insults. If this is the case with anyone, I apologise for any offence I have caused, I'm just trying to capture his blunt personality. But anywho, thanks for or the follows and I will try to update as much as possible but school is eating my life. Til next time!**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

**3****rd**** February 2014**

_How on earth did I wind up getting placed in music? _Thought Allen as he stood awkwardly amongst the other students standing in the music room. Their teacher had yet to materialise and it was already fifteen minutes into their double period. Allen wondered what the protocol was in the school for when your teacher didn't show up. He hoped it meant a free period.

Unfortunately, his hopes were dashed when the door of the room was thrown open and gravelly voice tinged with a Texan accent announced, "Sorry about that class. Not a great way to start off, I know, but hopefully things will go uphill from here!"

A man strode into the room, letting the door slam shut behind him. He was middle-aged with short black hair and stubble covering his chin. He was wearing a white t-shirt and beige shorts and wore an incredibly tall top hat on his head. He had a large pile of papers tucked under his arm and the minute he saw him, Allen was struck with a sense of familiarity. He couldn't tell what it was from though because he was sure he had never seen the man before in his life.

"My name is Adam, and you can call me Adam or sir and I am your music teacher for this semester. And remember that you're welcome to come and see me about _any _issues or needs you may have," said the man cheerfully. Allen didn't like the way he said that. It made him sound like a paedophile, a drug dealer or both. The teacher continued, "I can see that I've taught some of you year tens before and to the year nines, welcome. Just so I can get to know you all, when I call your name on the roll I want you to tell me a bit about yourself and whether you play an instrument or not."

With that he started calling out names. He kept asking really random questions halfway through each student's introduction so by the time he had reached Allen's name the bell for second period had already gone.

"Allen Walker," he said slowly, after a pause. Allen held up a hand and said, "Here sir."

Adam looked up and narrowed his eyes dangerously when he saw Allen. The white haired boy glanced at his fellow students who were looking from him to the teacher in confusion. After swallowing the lump of nervousness in his throat, he said, "I, uh, I'm new to the school. I transferred from London about a month ago with my godfather. I've lived in a lot of places around the world because my godfather liked to travel. I don't play an instrument."

All throughout his introduction Adam had been staring at him with a veiled hostility that was make Allen sweat profusely. He lapsed into silence a waited for the teacher to call the next name but he just kept staring at him.

_Oh god, _thought Allen, _Have I done something? Maybe he's one of those people who irrationally hate British people. Britishophobic or something…_

"So, Allen. Did you think moving from England to Australia was a good idea?" asked Adam coolly. Allen blinked I confusion and stuttered, "Uh, well, it was my godfather's idea and I have to go wherever he goes so…"

"But do you like it here more than England?"

"Um, I haven't really been here long enough to tell…"

"Have you ever been to Portugal Allen?"

Allen froze. He tried not to think about Portugal. He unfroze his jaw and replied carefully, "Yes sir…"

"Bring anything back?"

Allen felt the heat rise to his face and the wave of nausea that always accompanied thoughts of the giant screw up that had been the eleven months following Portugal. He _had _in fact brought something back from Portugal, but his classmates and his creepy teacher didn't need to know that.

"No sir," he replied, putting on his poker face. His teacher didn't look like he believed him but said anyway, "Thank you Walker. Now, we've just got enough time to assign instruments for the ensemble we'll be working on for the rest of the semester."

The rest of the lesson went by with various students volunteering to take on different instruments and Allen just passed it by, remaining quiet, hoping he'd just get assigned the symbols or something and trying to figure out what his teacher's deal was. He had more reason to be puzzled when the music teacher suddenly announced, "So the only instrument left is… piano! And the only student left is… Allen! Allen you can play the piano."

"What?!" exclaimed Allen, "Sir, I've never played the piano before in my life and…"

The teacher was suddenly looming over him, a mad glint in his eye as he emphasised, "_You can play the piano, Allen._"

Allen managed to whimper out, "Yes sir…"

* * *

"I've never been in his class myself, but I've heard rumours that he's a little weird," said Lenalee as she bit into her sandwich. Allen sighed, scrunching up his now empty lunch bag and said, "He seems to really hate me."

"Who wouldn't?" muttered Kanda, who was sitting across the alcove from the two of them. Allen glared at him and snapped, "Did I ask for your opinion?"

"No, but I'm going to fucking give it if I want to," Kanda snapped back. They glared at each other for a moment before Lenalee asked, "Do either of you know where Lavi is?"

"How should I fucking know?" grumbled Kanda, turning his attention back to his noodles. Allen shrugged when Lenalee's gaze turned to him and said huffed, "He's either studying like a good student or in detention. Which do you guys think is the most likely?"

"Detention," said Allen and Kanda together. They then glared at each other again as Lenalee laugh, "You two are so in-sync!"

"Please don't…" muttered Allen whilst Kanda snapped, "I'd rather kill myself then be _anything _with the _moyashi_. Better yet, I'd rather kill him," he pointed at Allen, "With a spatula."

Allen sneered, "How do you kill someone with a _spatula_?"

"In slow and painful ways, and I know all of them," replied Kanda ominously. Allen was about to shoot back a reply but at that moment Lavi launched himself over the stair railing and landed next to Kanda shouting, "Sup bitches! Guess who just got out of prison!"

"Get the fuck away from me," snapped Kanda, jabbing at Lavi's shins with his chopsticks. The redhead stumbled out of the way and collapsed next to Allen and proceeded to latch onto the British boy's arm and whine, "Allen, Yuu's being scary! Please save me from him!"

"Don't call me that," growled Kanda, eyes glinting murderously.

"Sorry, but I value my life," said Allen. Lavi gave him a puppy dog eye and then said, "Well, I'm going to have to pull a squid on you."

Allen blinked in confusion and said, "A what?"

"A squid. I will cling to your arm in a squid like fashion for my own protection for the rest of the day."

"What about my classes? What about _your _classes?"

"I don't care about that. I'll skip as many classes as I need to just so I can have a chance to be squiddy on your arm!"

"You can't skip classes Lavi," said Lenalee exasperatedly, "Think of what your grandpa would say."

That seemed to have a sobering affect so the redhead, who went pale and sat up very straight muttering, "I'll never skip any classes again, I swear on the giant cannoli of heaven… I repent, I repent, I repent all of my sins."

"Why the fuck are you so scared of the old geezer?" sneered Kanda, "He's even more midgety than the _moyashi."_

"Don't call me that," snapped Allen as the same time as Lavi moaned, "Yes, but he's not your legal guardian! You don't know what it's like! It's painful!"

"Hey, I had to put up with an old geezer who'd inhaled a few too many paint fumes over the years," snarled Kanda, "You know nothing of pain."

"Allen had a run-in with Adam," interrupted Lenalee, who seemed to have sensed a pointless argument surfacing, "Apparently he hates him more than he hates you."

"Woah, wait. How can anyone hate a British person?!" exclaimed Lavi, looking genuinely horrified.

"I seem to be managing it just fine," said Kanda. Lavi waved a hand at him and said, "Yes, but you're a special case. A _very _special case."

Kanda narrowed his eyes and said suspiciously, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"But anyway, I thought that dude had more sense. I was under the impression he was relatively normal!"

"Didn't he threaten to shove a violin up your ass if you ever set foot in his classroom again?" inquired Lenalee sceptically. Lavi sniffed and replied, "I said _relatively _normal. There's a big difference between normal and relatively normal. As big as the difference between prison and holding."

"He seemed to be very interested in whether I'd been to Portugal or not," said Allen, frowning. Lenalee looked curious and said, "That's strange. _Have _you been to Portugal before?"

Allen couldn't help it. He flushed furiously and stuttered, "Y-Yes, once before, but, um… I don't see why, uh, why that would interest him! I mean, it-it was a nice place and all, but, um, but I don't see…"

"Dude!" exclaimed Lavi, looking confused and delighted at the same time, "Slow down! I mean, I love your accent and all but shit, when it's that thick I can't understand one fucking word that comes out of your mouth!"

"He's speaking the same fucking language as you dipshit," snapped Kanda, "Maybe tune your fucking brain into the conversation for once and you'll understand!"

"Don't be so mean Kanda," sighed Lenalee. The Japanese boy huffed and looked away, to Allen's surprise, dropping the argument. Lenalee then turned her attention back to Allen and she asked, "So, what was Portugal like?"

"Uh…" said Allen, feeling nervous, "Well it was really nice, and the food was great. The people were pretty nice. And beautiful…"

"What?" said Lavi, raising an eyebrow. Panicking, Allen said quickly, "The country I mean! It was a very beautiful country! You know, the architecture and the scenery… not that kind of scenery!" he snapped when he saw Lavi's eyebrow raise another few centimetres up his forehead. The older boy grinned and held up his hands, saying, "I'm insinuating nothing!"

Allen narrowed his eyes at him and then noticed Kanda giving him a strange look. It wasn't his usual _I-Hate-You-For-No-Apparent-Reason _scowl; it was a more thoughtful one. Allen's brain couldn't seem to comprehend the sight of Kanda thinking, so he went into defensive mode, snapping, "Why are you staring at me?"

"Yuu, don't get interested in Allen now, he's mine! And I really don't wanna fight you for him because I know I'll lose," said Lavi warningly. Kanda scowl turned into his angry one and he snapped back, "Don't fucking call me that and as fucking _if_. And you're right. You _would _lose," he then glared at Allen for a moment before turning his head to the side and saying in rapid fire Japanese, "Che. _Watashi wa kare ga uwaki o mechakucha, ima, darekaga kare o sutokingu shite iru koto o yonde iru."_

Allen and Lavi stared at him and Allen said after a pause, "I have no idea what you just said and I know it's probably offensive but I'm actually kind of impressed right now."

"Totally…" agreed Lavi, staring at the Japanese boy in amazement. He then pouted and whined, "But no fair Yuu!"

"Don't call me that," came Kanda's immediate retaliation. Lavi ignored him and turned to Lenalee expectantly, who just shook her head and said, "Sorry, but I only studied Japanese for a little while. I'm as confused as you guys."

"So does that mean I'll never find out what the prick said?" groaned Allen. Kanda smirked maliciously back at him and said, "Right on the money, _moyashi_."

Allen scowled back at him as Lavi draped his arm over the shorter boy's shoulders. Allen was reminded of actually just how much _taller _Lavi was than him, a fact he constantly forgot due to the other boy's childish personality. He wondered when he'd start getting taller. Cross kept insisting that he was stunted but he didn't buy that for a second.

"I like the Japanese language," said Lavi, then added nostalgically, "It reminds me of watching all the Studio Ghibli films when I was a kid."

"Is that seriously all you can fucking think of when you hear Japanese?" said Kanda with a slight shoulder spasm. Lavi nodded dreamily and Allen asked incredulously, "You watched all of them in _Japanese?_ How old were you?"

"I started watching them when I was four. They're how I learnt to fucking read!" said Lavi with a laugh. Surprised, Allen asked, "Why didn't you watch them in the English dub first?"

"My grandpa wouldn't let me. He hates the dub and told me if he ever heard me watching it on that setting he'd plug my ears up with wax."

The white haired boy stared at him for a moment before saying slowly, "That sounds suspiciously like child abuse."

"Nah, don't worry. That's just the way my grandpa is."

"Doesn't stop it from being child abuse."

"You really don't have to worry Allen," said Lenalee, "That is actually how his grandpa is. He's a little stricter than most guardians…"

"I don't know Lenalady, your brother gives him a run for his money," interrupted Lavi. Lenalee sighed exasperatedly and said, "True that. But still, your grandpa's a nice person."

"Still sounds like child abuse to me," muttered Allen. Lenalee then said thoughtfully, "I really like the Japanese language as well. It's elegant and beautiful."

Allen glanced to Kanda to see what he had to say to this… and did a double take. He blinked a few times to make sure he wasn't imagining things. Once he was convinced what he was seeing was real, he allowed a smirk to brush across his cheeks. Even though Kanda's head was turned to the side so he was facing slightly away from them, Allen could still see the slight pink blush colouring his cheeks.

* * *

**A/N: OH MY GOD! SOME FREE TIME! WRITE A CHAPTER, QUICK! WHILE YOU STILL CAN! Yeah, I managed to get some free time and got this chapter finished. Woot! Might be able to get one or two more done before exams. Maybe. Just quickly, I got what Kanda said off Google Translate and so there are probably about a gazillion grammatical errors in there. Once again, thanks for everyone's support and see you next time! **


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

**3****rd**** February 2014**

"Yay! We have a class together!" said Lenalee cheerfully as she and Allen stood outside the theatre, with some other students from both of their years. Allen smiled back and said, "Yeah. Should be fun. What is this class anyway? All it said on my timetable was 'Production'."

"It's the big play that the middle school puts on at the end of term three. Kanda did it when he was in year nine and said it was an alright subject. I tried to get in last year but it was full," she replied. Allen's jaw dropped in shock and he spluttered, "Wait, you mean, play as in, _a theatrical performance?" _

Lenalee looked confused and replied, "Yeah. Why? What's the big deal?"

"Are you telling me," Allen said slowly, "That Kanda was in _a theatrical performance?_"

"Yes, he was," said Lenalee, looking even more confused. Allen snickered and said, "Was he any good?"

"Yeah!" said Lenalee happily, "He may not look like it but Kanda's got real artistic talent hidden in that brain of his. He'd really good at drawing and painting but I think his foster dad traumatized him for life against that particular art style."

"That's… more than surprising," said Allen, his eyebrows raised. So apparently the uncouth brute wasn't a complete… uncouth brute. He frowned and then said, "Hold on, I just registered something you said. Kanda said he _liked _a subject? When does Kanda ever like _anything_?"

"Umm…" Lenalee looked thoughtful and then replied, "Never. That's why I was so keen to get into the subject."

"He liked something… wow. I'm shocked. I thought his personality was set on the 'Hate Everyone And Everything In The World' function. Does he like any of his other subjects?"

"No," she then gave him a sceptical look and said, "Hey Allen, you seem to show a lot of interest in Kanda. Just a heads up, he's straight so…"

"Oh for god's sake!" exclaimed Allen irritably, "Why does everyone seem to think I'm interested in Kanda!? That thought is disgusting! God, I think I just vomited a little inside. Just… no. I'm far more interested in Lavi than…"

His mouth shut with a snap as Lenalee's eyebrows shot up her forehead. She giggled and said, "You like Lavi?"

"No! That was just… I meant it that, um, you know, I'd rather date Lavi than Kanda! I'm not interested in _either _of them though! Just, Lavi more so than Kanda! I mean-"

"Excuse me, but do you mind having a crisis about your love life in someplace other than right in front of the door," said a voice next to him, "I'd like to let the class in please."

Allen turned to see that a woman was standing next to him, a set of keys in one hand and an amused expression on her face. She had short black hair that had one long clump of it tied behind her head in a ponytail. She was wearing a purple t-shirt and grey skin tight jeans. Her eyes were a very dark brown, almost black in colour. Allen blushed and shuffled out of the way, muttering, "Sorry miss."

The woman chuckled before opening the door and striding down the steps into the room, the class streaming in after her. The theatre was reasonably sized with a large elevated platform rising up at the back of the room, closest to the main entrance, and the stage was at the front, taking up a quarter of the room. The rest of the room was currently an empty space. No banks of chairs to be seen. As Allen started to wonder about this, he noticed something else and his nose crinkled in distaste. Lenalee, (who was still snickering about before), glanced at him and asked, "What the matter?"

"The floor seems to be getting eaten by a large, hideous red caterpillar," replied Allen. Lenalee glanced down and laughed, "You don't like the carpet?"

"It is not a matter of my not _liking _the carpet," said Allen, moving towards the area of the room where the rest of the class was converging, "It is a matter of my _loathing _the carpet with all of my heart."

"Lover Boy!" said the teacher loudly, "Sit down and shut up like everyone else!"

Flushing again, Allen sat down next to Lenalee and lapsed into silence. The teacher grinned at him briefly before saying loudly, "Good afternoon class! My name is Anita and I am going to be your teacher for this subject. This is a full year subject so if you want to transfer, do it _now _before you mess up the play for everyone else. If you do that, I've received semi-legitimate permission from the principal to kill deserters with fire."

She smiled around at all the class members as if daring them to contradict her. No one spoke and Allen and Lenalee shared a nervous look.

"Now, with that said, we will be working for pretty much the entire year on a big scale production. I haven't picked the play yet and guess what? You get absolutely no say in what the play is going to be!" she clapped he hands, still smiling as she continued, "Each of you will have one or two roles and each of you will be assigned to an area of stage craft. It will be a stressful process and mark my words, each of you will probably want to kill everyone else in this class but once you get through it you'll find that you're all a little closer. If I haven't murdered you myself by that stage."

"Is this supposed to be a motivational speech?" muttered Allen to Lenalee, who shrugged.

"Did I give you permission to speak Lover Boy?" said Anita sweetly, "What's your name?"

"Um. Allen Walker," replied Allen nervously. He didn't like the glint that was present in the teacher's eyes. Her smile widened and she said, "Well, Allen Walker, for speaking out of turn, you can do a jellyfish impersonation for the rest of the double."

"What?!" exclaimed Allen, trying to ignore the laughter coming from the rest of the class, "How do I do a jellyfish impersonation?"

"On your feet and drift about flapping your arms!"

"But miss…"

"Start jellyfishing Walker!"

* * *

"Anita!" called a voice from the back of the classroom, nearly forty minutes later. It seemed that their teacher had been serious about her punishment and Allen was still drifting about the class doing a jellyfish impersonation. His arms were getting incredibly tired. He glanced to the back of the room and saw that Link was standing in the entrance to the theatre.

"Hello Howard!" called Anita, "What can I do for you?"

"Can I borrow Mr Walker?" said Link, looking at Allen and then back to the teacher. Anita nodded and replied, "Of course! Off you go Walker."

Sighing in relief, Allen dropped his arms and started walking towards Link but Anita called after him, "Did I _say _you could stop jellyfishing Walker?"

Allen died a little inside and groaned, "No miss."

"Well? I'm waiting Walker!"

Allen started flapping his already exhausted arms and tried to ignore the strange look he was getting from Link as he followed him out of the theatre. Once outside, Link said with a hint of amusement in his voice, "You can stop that now."

"Thank you," said Allen, dropping his arms to his sides and slumping his shoulders. Link let him rest for a moment before saying, "Getting off on the wrong foot with your teachers already?"

"Only two of them!" said Allen indignantly, "And with one of them I don't have any bloody idea as to why he doesn't like me!"

"It couldn't be your absolutely _charming _heat-affected personality could it?" said Link sceptically.

"I realise I can be a little… disagreeable when I'm hot," said Allen, ignoring Link's expression of barely controlled laughter, "But I was actually being perfectly decent to both of them! And why are you here Link? I doubt you've decided to pull me out of class just for a chat."

"I'm just checking to see how you're settling in," said Link, before he held an exercise book he had had in his hand out to Allen and continued, "And Miss Nyne told me to give this to you. You left it in her class."

Allen took the exercise book from the vice principal, remembering his tall, intimidating blonde English teacher who had been his only teacher yet to be bold enough to ask about the scar on his face. In return, she had told the class how she had gotten hers (motorcycle accident when she was seventeen).

"Thank her for me would you?" said Allen gratefully. Link nodded and said, "Walker, I couldn't help but notice that at lunchtime you've been spending time with Lenalee Lee, Yuu Kanda and Lavi Bookmen."

"Um, yes I have," said Allen, "Why?"

"Miss Lee is a lovely girl and a very good choice for a friend," replied Link, "But those other two…" he scowled and snapped, "They're a terrible influence. They've caused nothing but problems since they came to this school!"

_Why am I not surprised? _Thought Allen, thinking of Lavi's penchant for being random and Kanda's foul mouth and violent tendencies.

"Trust me Link, I don't consider Kanda to be a friend of any shape or form," reassured Allen. Link looked sympathetic and said, "Sorry about your locker position. Everywhere else was full."

Allen waved away his concern and said, "But Lavi seems to be alright. I mean, he doesn't seem to understand the concept of personal space, but he's harmless enough."

"He gets up to mischief and is a nuisance to each and every member of the faculty," sniffed Link, "And Walker, I know you've got the right to choose who you want to be friends with but I just thought that since Portugal…"

"Link," interrupted Allen, a scary glint in his eye, "I usually abhor the use of violence but when people who know about Portugal mention Portugal, I can make an exception."

Link stared at him for a moment, unimpressed, before sighing and saying, "You know, you really shouldn't be threatening the guy who is keeping the fact that you're currently living by yourself with no guardian to watch over you from the principal."

"And I am eternally grateful for that," said Allen, his usual smile coming back onto his face, "But… you know we don't talk about Portugal."

"Fine, fine Walker," said Link with a shrug, "But I'm just warning you against making the same mistakes again. With those two, it could end up that way."

"It won't," said Allen, shuddering, "They're not that bad, I can feel it. And nothing can be as bad as Portugal."

* * *

**4****th**** February 2014**

The shrill ringing of the phone snapped Allen in to consciousness early on Friday morning. He tried to leap out of bed but his legs were still not functioning properly and they were tangled in his sheets, so he fell face down onto the floor. Letting loose a string of curses he untangled himself from the bed sheet and scrambled to his feet. He staggered out into the dark lounge room aiming for the phone. He let out a yell of pain as he stubbed his toe on the couch and Timcampy raised his head sleepily from where he was sleeping on the couch.

Just as the phone was sounding out its final ring, Allen grabbed it off the receiver and held it to his ear, mumbling, "M'ello?"

"Hello?!" Allen jerked the phone away from the ear as a screechy woman's voice came blasting out of the speaker, "Hello?! Is this the residence of a Mr Cross Marian and a Mr Allen Walker?!"

"Yes," said Allen sleepily, "This is Allen."

"Oh. Well, I'm from the school office," aah, that explained the screechiness, "And I'm calling to let you know that school has been cancelled due to extreme heat conditions. Do you understand? Don't come to school because no one will be here!"

"Oh, okay. I understand. Thank-" started Allen but the receptionist had already hung up. He took the phone away from his ear and stared at it quizzically, as if he were wondering if it was actually real. That had been a very loud, very confusing conversation to have at (he checked the time on the phone screen quickly) six o clock in the morning.

He stood there sleepily for a moment before what the receptionist had actually said registered in his brain. He stared in horror at Timcampy and hissed, "Good lord. They have days off because _it gets too hot!_"

"Woof," said Timcampy sleepily. Allen grabbed his white hair in his hands and exclaimed, "If it's too hot for the Australians, what's it going to be like for _me_?!" he groaned and continued, "It's- it's going to be roasted British! I'm seriously going to bloody die by the end of the day! Death by stupid Australian summer! What a way to go! Burnt to death. Fiery inferno. _Like fire!"_ he hummed a little, "_Hellfire!" _

"Woof!" said Timcampy exasperatedly, and went back to sleep.

* * *

**A/N: AAAAA! Slightly freaking out about exams! But, am managing to get some writing done in my Art classes because we've finished the course for the semester. Oh, and I'm actually not making up the thing about getting days off school because of heat. If it gets above 38 C (which happens a lot in summer here) we have the day off. And get to roast at home instead. Fun. See you all next time! **


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

**5****th**** February 2014**

Allen was currently lying face down on the cool concrete floor of his kitchen with a wet towel under his head and an enormous bowl full of iced water next to him. He had managed to survive yesterday's enormous heat only by staying in this exact position and periodically splashing water from the bowl over his face and drinking some of it occasionally. The only movement he had made throughout the entire day was walking to the freezer or the tap to top up the bowl, or going to the bathroom. The stupid water restrictions were in place so he couldn't just stand under a cold shower for the entire day. Timcampy had been mimicking his master except he was lying on the couch rather than on the floor.

Now, Allen noticed that thankfully the temperature in the apartment seemed to have cooled down minutely. It was still bloody hot though. He sighed and thought to himself, _I suppose I better do some homework today. Be innovative. _

He rolled onto his back and threw an arm over his eyes, groaning. He could feel a headache coming on and that insistent tapping that had just started up wasn't helping.

He suddenly sat bolt upright. The insistent tapping hadn't been there a couple of minutes ago and it certainly didn't sound like a tree branch tapping against the window in the wind. No, judging from the direction the sound was coming from, someone was tapping on the glass door of the balcony.

Allen scrambled to his feet and made his way over to the knife block, from which he pulled out the largest kitchen knife currently in the house. If someone was indeed on his balcony, no doubt trying to rob him, stern words would be said to them and threats of bodily harm would be made if said someone refused to vacate the premises promptly.

Holding the knife out in front of him, Allen exited the kitchen and starting edging around the wall that blocked his view to the balcony. Timcampy was lying spread out on the couch, still asleep.

"Some guard dog you are," muttered Allen, before focussing more on the fact that he had reached the end of the blocking wall and that the tapping was becoming more insistent. He really hoped it wasn't a paedophile. Or his music teacher come to kill him for… something. But there was really not much difference between the two so…

He leapt out from behind the wall and a voice screamed, "BRIT!"

The sudden shout startled him so much that he dropped the knife. As he was bending to pick it up he paused and looked up at the glass. His eyes widened and he said incredulously, "_Lavi?"_

"Sup dude!" called the redhead, his voice slightly muffled through the glass, "How's it hanging?"

"What the bloody great hell are you doing on my _balcony?" _snapped Allen, walking over to open the door, "How did you even know where I live?"

"Hacked the school system and looked up your address!" said Lavi cheerfully as Allen opened the door and joined him on the balcony, getting accosted by a wave of heat as he did so, "Pretty simple really."

"That is all forms of illegal," growled Allen, "You're starting to seriously remind me of a hyper-active Cross."

"Hold that thought," said Lavi before he leaned over the edge of the balcony and called, "Yuu! It's the right apartment! You don't have to save me from Allen's angry neighbours!"

"Fucking fabulous rabbit!" shouted an angry, familiar voice from below, "And don't call me that!"

Unable to believe his ears, Allen walked over to join Lavi and stared down over the edge balcony. Kanda was standing on the pavement of the driveway below, scowling angrily up at them. Allen's brain took a moment to process what he was seeing before he called, "I am so confused right now! Seriously, why are you both here? Especially you Kanda. I can understand Lavi stalking me…"

"I'm _not _stalking you!" said Lavi, "Just finding your house and visiting you without you knowing about it!"

"But I thought you hated me!" continued Allen, ignoring this comment. Kanda sneered and said, "Let me up into your place. I can't be fucked with this yelling."

"Plus we've probably woken all of the neighbours," said Lavi nonchalantly. Allen scowled and said to Kanda, "Why on earth would I let _you _into my apartment?"

"Because I've seen your front door and I know it's made of glass. I also know that there are a lot of fucking big random rocks in your front garden that I can lift and use to break the fucking glass of your fucking stupid door. And then you'll be stuck with the repair bill."

Allen gritted his teeth in frustration and called, "Fine! Go, I'll let you up."

As Kanda disappeared around the side of the building, Allen and Lavi entered the apartment, shutting the door behind them. Sighing, Allen said, "Well, now you're here, welcome."

"Dude, your apartment's ace!" said Lavi looking around the room. There was a sudden incredibly loud, incredibly jarring buzzing noise that made both of them jumped and Allen cursed, "Christ! I always forget about that!"

"Holy shit man, is that your doorbell?" said Lavi, horrified, "It sounds like a blowfly on steroids got a hold of a microphone and then got lodged inside your ear!"

"That's an… interesting description," said Allen as he pressed the button by the receiver that unlocked the door below.

"Yeah, well I pride myself as a poet and- Dude, why the fuck are you holding a massive kitchen knife?"

Allen glanced down at the knife in his hand and replied sheepishly, "Uh, well, I thought you were an intruder so…"

"Okay man, I know that it would be self-defence but stabbing a dude is considered illegal in this country," said Lavi seriously. Allen smirked and said, "Tell that to Cross."

"Wait, what-" started Lavi but at that moment the front door flew open and Kanda stormed in, slamming it behind him. He glared at Allen and snapped, "Why is your apartment building such a fucking labyrinth?"

Allen's irritation started to boil over and he snapped back, "I'm sorry for not being able to control the thoughts of the architects who designed this place!"

"Well you could have fucking signs in the corridors or some shit, you moron."

"Prick, I don't know whether you've noticed but I'm not the bloody body corporate of the building!"

"Ack! Stop fighting!" exclaimed Lavi, jumping in between the two, "I usually find it hilarious but Allen doesn't seem to be in the best of moods. And Yuu, he's holding a fucking huge kitchen knife!"

Kanda glanced down at the knife and then back up at Allen and said dubiously, "I didn't peg you for the homicidal type."

"I'm not," said Allen, "I just-"

He was interrupted by Lavi giving and sudden high pitched squeal (_How the hell does he make his voice go that high? _Thought Allen, wincing) and ran towards the couch. Kanda winced as well and shouted, "Fuck! Eardrums, rabbit, eardrums!"

"Sorry man!" said Lavi over his shoulder, "But Brit! You've got a _dog_!"

Lavi was currently scratching Timcampy's ears with such eagerness that it made Allen wonder if there was such a thing as ear molestation. Tim didn't seem to mind though.

"That's Timcampy," introduced Allen, "He's my best friend."

Kanda's shoulders spasmed and he snickered, "Your best friend is a fucking _dog_? That's explains a lot."

"Well at least he's better company than you," said Allen coolly before saying to Timcampy, "This is the chap I said you could bite on the ankle boy. Feel free to start biting any time soon."

Kanda suddenly looked wary as Timcampy showed a flash of pointy teeth and said, "Keep your fucking dog away from me _moyashi. _I fucking mean it!"

"My name's Allen," snapped Allen, and Lavi said, "Timcampy can't bite Yuu yet! I'm having too much fun with his ears!"

"Dog molester," said Allen and then was distracted by Kanda, who had moved into the kitchen, "Hey! What are you doing?"

"Burning down your fucking kitchen!" snapped Kanda. Knowing that was something the Japanese boy would probably do, he followed after him with the knife held aloft and said, "I'm not opposed to disposing your body in the light well you know."

"Like you could fucking kill me," said Kanda, who was in the process of opening every cupboard in the room, "Calm the fuck down. I'm just getting a glass of water. And by the way, do you sleep on the floor in here?" he pointed to the towel and the bowl of water that were still on the floor by the table.

"Glasses are in the right hand cupboard above the stove," said Allen, "And I only slept in here last night because it was so hot."

Kanda stared at him for a while before shaking his head and muttering, "Dipshit," as he pulled a glass down from the cupboard. Allen gritted his teeth but didn't rise to the jibe and walked back into the lounge room, where Lavi was still scratching Timcampy's ears. The redhead looked up, his one green eye glittering and he said happily, "This is fucking awesome man! You have no idea how much I love dogs! Is your dog, like, _British _because if he is I might faint or something."

"No. Cross was suddenly seized by the desire to buy a dog when we arrived and so we got Timcampy," replied Allen, smiling at the dog.

"Dude, who is this Cross guy you keep mentioning?"

"Oh right, I keep forgetting you don't know him," said Allen, slapping his forehead, "He's my godfather and, unfortunately, my legal guardian."

"He at work or something?"

Allen hesitated for a moment before replying sheepishly, "He's, uh, not here right now. Hasn't been for a while."

"Business trip?"

"Uh, no…" said Allen, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.

"He abandoned you didn't he?" said Kanda, emerging from the kitchen with a glass of water in his hand, "Fucking parent of the year."

"Woah! Dude, is that true?!" exclaimed Lavi, staring incredulously at Allen. The white haired boy hesitated before nodding and saying, "He's been missing for about three weeks now."

"Three weeks?!" shouted Lavi, gaping at him, "Who's paying the bills?! Who's looking after you?!"

"Me," said Allen weakly. Glancing back into the kitchen, Kanda looked unimpressed and growled, "And what a fucking great job you're doing."

"Hey, that was a one-time thing. I don't deal well with heat."

"Why the fuck did you move to Australia then?!"

"It wasn't _my _decision- No. I'm not fighting you right now," said Allen, glaring at the black haired boy before turning to Lavi and asking, "Now, I don't mean to be rude but may I ask what you're doing in my bloody apartment?!"

"Ah! Two reasons!" said Lavi, snapping his fingers, "The first is I wanted to know where you lived."

"Not stalkerish at all…" murmured Allen. Lavi ignored him and continued, "The second is that you're coming to the pool with us today!"

"What? No I'm not," said Allen, frowning.

"Yes, you are. Go get changed! Oh, and can I come and watch you?"

"No and no," said Allen, nonplussed, "It's too hot to go outside and I plan on just staying inside and-"

He was cut off suddenly by Kanda grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and wrenching him off the ground. He was actually dangling in mid-air. Once he had gotten over his initial shock, the white haired boy said angrily, "Put me down you-"

"Listen to me you little fucker," said Kanda in a tone that made it clear he wasn't against tossing Allen off the balcony if need be, "You're coming to the fucking pool with us even if I have to drag you there. The only reason I'm here is because Lenalee asked me to come and get you and I'd rather stab myself with a fork than leave and realise I just wasted precious fucking minutes of my life trying to find you. So go get changed or I'll kick your fucking ass!"

He released Allen, who stumbled away from the irate Japanese boy, feeling more than a little threatened. Lavi and Timcampy surveyed the scene warily and the redhead said, "Better do as he says man. Yuu's not in the greatest mood right now."

"If you call me that one more time I'm going to break your fucking nose," snapped Kanda, leaning up against the piano, folding his arms. Allen glared for a minute longer and then threw his hands up in the air and said exasperatedly, "Fine! But when I come out again… promise not to get freaked out."

* * *

**A/N: Exams are seriously killing me. I'm dying. Oh well, only two more and then FREEDOM! A friend of mine loves this so much that she's doing a commission for me and has asked for me to upload it to deviantart for her when she's done! I'm touched! **

**Just quickly about Kanda in the previous chapter, I will post a translation soon but it has spoilers in what he said so it won't be posted until a bit later in the story. Thanks for all the great support guys! **


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

**5****th**** February 2014**

"Shit man," said Lavi as they approached the Brunswick Leisure Centre, the three of them almost dying of heat exhaustion, "How the hell didn't you die of trauma?"

"British doctors are very good at their jobs," replied Allen, feeling uncomfortable with his scarred arm visible to world. He was still wondering what on earth had possessed him to agree to this. He then glanced to the side and remembered Kanda was there and realised 'agree' was not the correct word for what he had just done.

"Over here guys!" called a feminine voice. Allen glanced up and saw Lenalee waving at them from the top of the stairs that lead into the building. When they reached her she offered greetings and then caught sight of Allen's arm and exclaimed, "Oh my god! What happened?!"

"Car accident when I was nine," replied Allen blandly, "Don't really want to go into it in detail right now."

Lenalee stared at him confusedly for a moment before shrugging and saying, "Well, I guess we now know why you wear those long sleeves, but really Allen. Is half dying for heat exhaustion worth covering that up? It's not that bad, I'm not kidding here."

"Other people would think otherwise," replied Allen as they entered the building. It was much cooler inside, (_God must have been in a particularly good mood when he put the idea for air conditioning into someone's head, _thought Allen) but there was a long queue of people waiting to pay to get into the pool. The four of them joined the end of the line as Lavi said to Lenalee, "Hey, guess what Lenalady? Allen's been living on his own for, like, two months now!"

Lenalee turned to Allen questioningly and before she could say anything he explained, "My godfather decided to, uh, go AWOL for a while."

"That doesn't sound too responsible," said Lenalee. Allen chuckled and replied, "I don't think my godfather understands the meaning of the word responsible."

"Move up _moyashi. _I don't want to be stuck in this fucking queue forever," snapped Kanda in a bored fashion from behind them. Allen turned to shoot back a retort but Lenalee lightly pushed him forward before turning to the Japanese boy and saying, "Kanda, try to tone down the swearing a bit, okay? There are small children around."

"Che. Prepares them for high school," said Kanda but Allen noticed he managed to leave out any swear words in the sentence. The white haired boy grinned and said, "Oh dear Kanda, looks like that might be a bit of a challenge for you. Maybe you should just, oh I don't know, _not talk _for the rest of our time here! Then the experience would be much more enjoyable for everyone!"

"One more word out of your mouth _moyashi, _and I swear I'll fffff-" he cut off as he received a pointed look from Lenalee then continued, "Freaking. I swear I'll freaking kill you."

Lenalee smiled and patted him on the arm and saying, "Good job. I'm proud of you."

"Woah," said Lavi incredulously, "Lenalee, I think you might be, a god in disguise or something. I don't think I've ever seen Yuu-"

"Don't ffff- freaking call me that!"

"Censor himself like that! You are either not human or have a weird _gift _or something."

Lenalee laughed and moved forward to the counter that they had just reached and bought four passes into the pool. She then told them she was going to go get changed and ran off towards the change rooms. The three boys moved out through the glass sliding doors to the outside pool. It was a pretty big pool and was full of people. The areas surrounding the pool were all grass scattered with trees and were also packed with people. The three of them picked their way towards a less crowded area of the grass underneath one of the trees. Kanda glared aggressively at a middle aged man who was reading under the tree until he moved and so they had pretty much the entire space to themselves.

"Now to wait for Lenalady!" said Lavi cheerfully as he plonked himself down on the grass his back up against the tree. Kanda knelt down on the grass nearby and Allen did the same, trying to ignore the curious stares his arm was getting from the people around him.

A few minutes later they heard Lenalee's voice call, "There you are! Wow, it's really crowded today isn't it?"

The three of them looked up as Lenalee reached them and laid her things down on the ground next to them. She was dressed in a plain black bikini and her long black hair hung loose around her shoulders. Allen smiled at her and Lavi said, "Hey! You look really cute Lenalady!"

Kanda said nothing but blushed furiously before getting to his feet and starting to move away. Lenalee stared after him confusedly and said, "Wait Kanda! Where are you going?"

"The pool," muttered Kanda, "It's hot and the pool is why we came to this shi- stupid place."

"Oh. Okay, I'll come with you then!" replied Lenalee, following after the black haired boy. Kanda didn't say anything in reply and continued walking. As they watched them walk away Allen asked Lavi, "Lavi? Is it at all possible that Kanda has-"

"A crush on Lenalady the size of Russia?" finished Lavi, "Yep, I think that's about as confirmed as chocolate is delicious. And of course, she is painfully oblivious to his affections."

Allen laughed and said, "Sounds like the plot to a soap opera."

"Totally, man. And yeah, that crush is the reason why you don't stand a chance with Yuu. He's liked her since he first met her or something, when they were semi-midgety."

"For the last time, I'm not interested in Kanda. Never have been, never will be."

"If you keep denying it like that people are gonna stop semi believing you."

"What do you mean _semi _believing me?"

"I mean they only half believed you in the first place," the redhead then switched the subject quickly saying, "Anyway, I'm so hot right now I think my brain's oozing out my ears and I can't afford to lose that particular organ right now, so let's hit the water!"

"I don't think I'm going to-" started Allen but was cut off by the sight of Lavi taking his shirt off. The white haired boy tried really (okay, maybe not _really_) hard not to stare at the older boy's body but it was quite challenging. He really did have the perfect figure, all lines and muscle… Allen sighed wistfully and this unfortunately caught the attention of the redhead who glanced at him and grinned saying, "You perving on me Brit? Not that I'd mind if you were…"

"No!" exclaimed Allen, flushing and reluctantly tearing his eyes away from the beautiful scenery before him, "I wasn't! I was just daydreaming a bit! Oh god, that sounded bad. "

"I was ten fff- flipping metres away and it sounded bad," growled Kanda as he came up to them, water dripping from his hair and body. He glared at Allen and snapped, "Aren't you the one who's always complaining about how hot it is? Why aren't you getting in the pool?"

Allen scowled back at him and said, "I just don't feel like it okay? I'm fine sitting here, in the shade, away from the- WHAT IN THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"

Kanda had suddenly lunged forward, grabbed Allen by the arms and actually _lifted _him off the ground and under his arm. He then proceeded to walk towards the pool, ignoring Allen's cries of protest and the weird looks they were getting from the people around them. The British boy tried to break his grip but it was like iron.

_I'm convinced now, _thought Allen as he struggled, _This guy isn't human. He's a robot from the future come to torment and kill us all. _

Allen was distracted from this thought by their arrival at the edge of the pool and the fact that Kanda was pulling back his arms as if to…

"Kanda! Wait wait wait wait! No, don't I-" shouted Allen but it was too late. Kanda had already let go of him and he flew a few feet through the air before crashing down into the water with a tremendous splash. Lavi came hurrying up to the edge of the pool and said, "Did you just throw the Brit into the pool?"

"Is your remaining eye blind?"

"Why'd you do that?"

"Because he was pissing me off. And I was bored."

"Where'd Lenalady go?"

"Saw some friends of hers or something. I don't fff- freaking know."

The two of them stared at the stream of bubbles rising from where Allen had gone in the water. They could see him just sort of… thrashing around down there. After another moment Lavi spoke up, "Dude, he's not coming up."

"Brilliant deduction genius," replied Kanda, still staring at the smudge in the water that was Allen. Becoming increasingly more concerned, Lavi said worriedly, "Dude, I don't think the Brit can swim."

"For once, I agree with you. He does appear to be drowning," said Kanda as nonchalantly as Kanda could manage.

"Oh Jesus- Hold on my love! I'm coming!" and with the Lavi dove into the pool. Kanda sighed and started walking back to where their things were.

_He could've told me he couldn't swim, _he thought without much interest.

"You are the most insensitive, small minded, spiteful, bad tempered, brain dead, thoughtless, imbecilic, pony-tail wearing prick to ever walk the face of the earth!" snapped Allen as they walked down the street towards Allen's apartment building a few hours later. Lavi had been nice enough to buy them all ice creams (Kanda had gotten a cola instead) and there had been a majority vote that they would all crash at Allen's for a while.

"Are you still fucking complaining _moyashi_?" snapped Kanda, "Just get the fuck over it. It wasn't that big a deal."

Allen stared at him incredulously for a minute before spluttering, "How the hell can someone be so insensitive?! You tried to _drown _me!"

"Your boyfriend wouldn't have allowed you to drown," said Kanda, jerking his head towards Lavi.

"He's not my boyfriend!" fumed Allen. Lavi grinned and said, "Not yet anyway!"

"Your opinion isn't needed here Lavi!" snapped Allen. Lenalee sighed and said gently, "Stop fighting boys. Everyone's just a little hot at the moment and so tempers are running thin. But you've got to admit, apart from the whole Kanda-Attempting-To-Murder-Allen thing, it was pretty fun."

Allen had indeed had a good time at the pool but he wasn't going to admit that just yet in front of the Japanese prick so he remained silent. They turned up onto the path that lead to Allen's front door and Lenalee stared around in interest saying, "So this is where you live. It's nice."

"No it's not," grumbled Allen as they reached the front door and he took out his keys, "I wouldn't live here if I had a choice."

He heard Lenalee chuckled as they entered the building (aah, the wonderful coolness of the foyer) and as they were moving up the stairs she said, "You're very picky about architecture aren't you? Do you want to be an architect?"

Allen paused at the door to his apartment before replying as he fitted the key in the lock, "I'm not sure. Haven't really thought about it yet."

"You don't need to Allen honey," said Lavi as they entered the apartment, "Now where's that awesome dog of yours?"

"Woof!" called Timcampy happily as he came running around the corner to greet them. Lenalee let out a delighted squeak and exclaimed, "Oh my god, Allen your dog is so cute!"

She ran forward and ruffled Timcampy's ears, who looked happy about the female attention. Allen smiled and said, "You guys make yourself at home," he then glared at Kanda, "Except for you, you criminal."

"Bite me," said Kanda in a bored fashion before he threw himself down on the couch. Allen glared at him for a while longer before turning to Lenalee and saying sweetly, "Lenalee, sorry but I need to feed Timcampy. Come on boy!"

The Chinese girl reluctantly let the Labrador go, and he followed his master into the kitchen. Once they were out of sight and Allen was sure the others were focussing on each other, he ducked down to be eye level with the dog and whispered, "Alright Tim. Time for you to bite Kanda on the ankle. You know I usually denounce that sort of behaviour but I'll make an exception for that murderous prick. Now remember, he's the male with black hair, got it?"

"Woof," said Timcampy quietly. Allen nodded and said, "Good boy. Now go on. Godspeed!"

The Labrador bounded out of the kitchen and the white haired boy stood up and leaned against the counter, waiting. He didn't have to wait long.

"AAGH, SHIT! WHAT THE FU- _OUCH! JESUS CHRIST! MOYASHI!"_

Allen grinned sinisterly. Revenge was so sweet. 

* * *

**A/N: WOOT! NO MORE EXAMS! YEEEEEESSSSS! Now I'm on work experience, so once again chapters might be a bit delayed. Sorry about that. I'll probably be able to get two or three more chapters out but then I'm going away for 10 days to a place with no internet cause WINTER HOLIDAYS! WOOT! So, serious chapter delays then. Sorry. Thanks again for all your support and I promise I will write more chapters while I'm away so I can upload when I get back. Til next time! **


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

**8****th ** **February 2014**

"Lenalee!" called Komui's voice from downstairs, "Dinner's ready!"

"Okay! I'll be down in a second!" she called, pausing the episode of No. 6 she was watching. Oh, how she loved this show! Drama, action, conspiracy, romance… Nezumi and Shion just needed to hurry up and get married. Everyone knew it was going to happen.

She then left her room and ran down the stairs towards the kitchen, past the photos of herself and her brother and sometimes her parents on the walls. When she walked in, she saw Komui had already laid out the dinner on the table. She sighed and said, "Stir fry _again _Brother?"

"I'm sorry Lenalee, but I'm very busy and so I don't have time to cook anything else. Besides, we haven't had it _that _much," replied Komui from where he was sitting at the table.

"We've had it for five nights in a row now Brother," said Lenalee, seating herself across from him, "If you're too busy I can cook."

"But I don't want you to interrupt your evening routine just for me!"

"Trust me Brother, I'm doing it as much for myself as I am for you. I may go crazy if I have to have another stir fry dinner within the next week."

Komui chuckled at that and then focussed his attention on his meal. After a moment of silent eating he looked up at her, a serious expression on his face. Lenalee felt her heart sink and prepared herself for the probable stream of overprotective brother bullshit that was no doubt to come. She didn't have to wait long before he started in the overprotective tone, "Lenalee dear…"

"Brother, I haven't broken curfew, I don't have a secret boyfriend and I haven't done anything else against the rules you set down for me when I started attending high school," she said immediately without looking up.

"I know that, but…" he hesitated and she knew that the next thing out of his mouth was going to be something she didn't like, "I've noticed that you've spending time with three boys at school…"

She slammed her chopsticks down on the table top and said exasperatedly, "Brother! Those three are my friends and nothing else! And they'll remain _just friends_!" she thought of Kanda and said to herself, _Well, maybe with a possible exception. _She would never had said that to her brother though, lest she wanted an insane overprotective tirade and probable house arrest for the next month and probably Kanda being driven out of the country.

"Yes my dear, but I think you may be too _trusting _of those boys…" said Komui dubiously and Lenalee immediately shot back, "One of those boys is Kanda, Brother. I've been friends with him for three years! You should trust him by now!"

Komui sniffed in a disapproving way and replied, "You know I've always been against your friendship with that… that _animal. _He's unpredictable and a bad influence. And then there's Lavi Bookmen. He gets detention almost everyday of the week and the only reason he hasn't been expelled yet is that he's a high achieving student. And he's a flirt. A horrible, perverted flirt. And Allen Walker, well, you've only known him for six days Lenalee!"

"Brother, you need to let go of that time that Kanda threw a beaker at your head. He was young and I think he was in a dark place back then. I'm in no danger from Lavi because he's actually a gentleman even though he doesn't show it and he's most certainly not interested in me like that right now. And Allen is… Allen, and he's not interested either."

"But they're scoundrels! I know they are!"

"They're really not Brother."

"I have a feeling they're after your Holy Virgin Powers!"

She knew that if she had been holding her chopsticks she would have dropped them. She stared at her brother in incredulous silence for a couple of minutes before smiling sweetly and saying, "Brother, if you ever say anything as embarrassingly stupid as that again, I will go out a get pregnant and one of those three _scoundrels _as you say will be the father."

"No!" shrieked Komui and Lenalee turned back to her meal as he started babbling a bunch of incoherent nonsense that were probably threats on the boys' lives. Lenalee sighed. God, he was annoying sometimes.

* * *

It was hot. Again. Allen knew it now. Australian summer was the power's above way of punishing him for his sins. He didn't exactly know what sins he was being punished _for, _(he thought of Portugal but quickly destroyed the thought with his psychological sledgehammer) but surely it wasn't bad enough for this day in day out suffering he was going through. He pulled at the collar of he shirt and wondered if he panted like Timcampy it would help. At least under the trees of the park it was a little cooler.

"I can't believe they make us attend school in this sort of weather…" he muttered. There was a sudden tapping noise behind him and suddenly two arms wrapped themselves around his shoulders and he was almost bowled over and given a semi heart attack as his attacker said cheerfully, "Talking to yourself is the first sign of madness you know! And if I was a pedo, you'd so be in my white van by now."

"Lavi!" exclaimed Allen irritably, "Good lord man, you almost gave me a heart attack. Urgh, god. I do _not _need this adrenaline rush right now."

"Aw, come on! It's good for you. Get's you to wake up!" grinned Lavi, detaching himself from the white haired boy and moving to walk beside him, "And could you just, like, keep talking, because your accent is a fucking beautiful thing to hear in the morning."

"It's early in the morning and it's hot," growled Allen, "I will not be doing a lot of talking."

"If you're gonna stay here man you better get used to the heat," said Lavi, "But don't worry. It should start cooling down about halfway through next month."

Allen stared at him and then hissed, "It doesn't cool down until _next month?" _

The taller boy nodded and then said, "Welcome to Australia man! But you, with you around, I probably won't be cool ever again!"

"Shut up," muttered Allen, speeding up his pace.

* * *

"Dogg's Hamlet and Cahoot's Macbeth!" announced Anita to the class. There was silence and Lenalee and Allen shared a glance that clearly said, _Have you heard of it? _

Anita chuckled and said, "Don't worry everyone. I knew that none of you would have heard of it and that's part of the reason why I picked it. So you could discover something new! Now they're two short, obscure little plays and will be difficult to preform but I think you're a smart bunch and will be able to pull it off," she held up a pile of papers and said, "I've got your scripts here and attached to each are the roles and stage craft you have been assigned to. Some of you will have two roles but don't stress. You're capable young people."

Once Allen had received his paper he said to Lenalee as the rest of the class shared their roles with each other, he said, "I got Cahoot and I'm on costumes."

"I got costumes too," said Lenalee, "And I'm Lady Macbeth."

Allen flipped through the script quickly and found the Cahoot's Macbeth part and read over the lines. His eyes widened and he said, "First point, your role is huge. Second point, a lot of both of these plays seem to be in gibberish."

"Correct Walker!" said Anita as she handed out the final script and seated herself down in the circle, "Parts of these plays are in gibberish and that is what makes them so difficult. The audience won't know what you're saying in these parts so you'll have to be more expressive with your movements and with costumes, props and set," her eyes rested on Allen and Lenalee as she said this and they both smiled weakly back at her, "Costume people were chosen because of their dress sense if you want to know."

The two of them glanced down at themselves and then at each other. Anita grinned and then said, "Also because I judged them to be intelligent. Take that as a compliment. Now, let's get on with reading through this!"

"So basically we're going to have a tonne of work on top of our other work," muttered Allen and Lenalee nodded.

"Get used to it Walker," said Anita without looking up from the script. Allen swore that woman had the hearing capabilities of a bat.

* * *

**A/N: Oh my god guys, I am so sorry for the huge delay but I have been in a place with no internet for ages. I shall have this access to internet for today only, so hey! You guys get a new chapter! But from Saturday I'll be uploading a chapter everyday for nine or ten days, or possibly even more. Yay! So good to be back in civilisation (almost) but it was also nice not having the internet around so I could just write. Thanks for your continued support! Until next time! **


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

**27****th**** March 2014 **

"Parent-teacher conference?" said Allen, pausing halfway through a bite of his sandwich, "Next week?"

"Yeah," replied Lenalee, "I don't have one because my brother's a member of the staff and checks up on how I'm doing anyway. But you guys have to have one. It's compulsory or something."

"Yeah, Gramps is coming and I swear I'm seriously going to be murdered afterwards," said Lavi morosely, "Make the most of the time you have with me guys, because I won't be in this world for much longer," he turned to Allen but the British boy immediately held up a hand and said, "Whatever romantically involving thing you're going to ask me to do, I'm not doing it."

"Goddammit," said Lavi, snapping his fingers, "You've got me all figured out Brit. But seriously, you turning me down with your, like, British accent is a serious turn-on."

Allen shuddered and scooted along the step closer to Lenalee. Kanda groaned and snapped, "For fuck's sake rabbit, I didn't need to know that."

"What're you doing for the parent-teacher Yuu?" asked Lavi, ignoring Kanda's immediate protest at the sound of his first name, "Tiedoll coming? Or one of your brothers?"

"You have brothers?" said Allen with a frown, "Are they all irritating pricks like you or were you just an unlucky draw?"

"Shut the fuck up _moyashi," _snapped Kanda, "And they're not my brother's and that fucking psychotic geezer is not my dad by any stretch of the imagination."

"Can't choose your family Yuu!" said Lavi. Kanda glared at him and snapped, "Don't call me that and yes I fucking can because I seceded two years ago."

"Doesn't stop them from being related to you."

"How many fucking times do I have to tell you rabbit, _we're not fucking related! _Fucking foster kid here, remember? Fuck…"

"They're still you're family though. They still love you."

"No, they're now my stalkers. I'm going to have to get a fucking restraining order soon. The geezer keeps finding me while I'm on the street and tries to follow me home, yelling shit about 'as my father he has a right to know where I live now.' It's fucking annoying and I have to lose him every fucking time. If that's not classed as being fucking creepy I don't know what is."

"That is very strange behaviour for a parent," said Allen thoughtfully. Kanda waved a hand at him, "See? Even the _moyashi _gets it and his skull's not big enough to house a very large brain so it must be fucking obvious!"

Allen glared at him and snapped, "Even when I'm agreeing with you, you insult me. You must be the one of the most ungrateful arseholes on the planet!"

As Kanda flipped him the finger, Lenalee exclaimed, "Wow! You made Allen say a swear word other than 'bloody'. He must really not like you Kanda."

"Whoopdie-fucking-doo," muttered Kanda. Lenalee ignored him and asked, "But the school will still have sent Tiedoll a message about the conference right? How're you going to prevent him from seeing that?"

"His mailbox was raided yesterday morning just after the postman arrived," growled Kanda, "And a certain letter was burnt soon afterwards."

"You really don't want this conference to happen, do you?" laughed Lavi.

"No, I just don't want to see him, talk to him, or have anything to fucking do with him. Or any of them for that matter."

"What happens when the school sends him an email?"

"He doesn't have a fucking computer. Says they rot your brain or some shit like that."

This sent Lavi into a laughing fit. Once he was done he snickered, "Dude, is your foster-dad stuck in the Stone Age or something?"

"Ex foster-dad," growled Kanda, "And yeah, I'm pretty sure he is."

"Okay, so Kanda's trying to prevent his interview from happening and that's fine, sort of, not really," said Allen, "But I've got another issue. My legal guardian has gone AWOL and if the school finds out I'm going to be put into some torturous state home or something!"

"The school doesn't know that you're living alone?" said Lenalee incredulously, "How did you manage to hide something like that?"

"Vice Principal Link is covering for me," admitted the white haired boy, "But I don't know how he's going to explain if my guardian just doesn't _show up _to any events or check up on anything."

"How'd you get the vice principal to cover for you?" asked Lavi, disbelief in his tone, "He's like the biggest tight-ass in the school. Apart from the principal of course but still…"

"He's a family friend of mine," explained Allen, "I've known him since I was seven. He used to live in England as well and his parents were friends of my dad's."

"WHAT!?" yelled Lavi, sitting bolt upright and drawing a few curious looks from students sitting around them, "OUR VICE PRINCIPAL IS BRITISH AND NOBODY TOLD ME? HOW COULD I NOT KNOW THIS? WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?"

"Calm the fuck down rabbit," snarled Kanda, "We didn't know either. He doesn't have a fucking accent."

"Well, he has been in Australia for six years now," said Allen, "Maybe he dropped his accent."

"No one can just _drop _their accent _moyashi," _said Kanda, shaking his head. Allen stared at him incredulously for a while before the Japanese boy snapped, "The fuck are you staring at me for?"

Allen glanced quickly at Lenalee who gave a quick shake of her head and he sighed, "Nothing. Forget it."

"Our vice principal is British…" murmured Lavi, "A fucking Brit. How is that possible?"

"The world is full of mysterious things Lavi," said Allen, patting the redhead on the shoulder, "You'll get used to revelations like that."

"I don't think you should stress about the whole parent-teacher thing Allen," said Lenalee comfortingly, "I'm sure the vice principal will have it covered somehow. But anyway, I have something I need to ask you all," once she was sure she had their attention she asked, "Would you guys like to form like, a study group sort of thing? Just the four of us and we can hang out at one of our places each time we meet. Cause, you know, exams are coming up soon, and I know Allen doesn't have them but he can tag along anyway because he's, well, Allen. And I also want to spend more time with you guys because you're all awesome."

"Fuckin' A Lenalady!" said Lavi with a grin, "I'm in!"

Allen shrugged and said, "Sure. I'd be happy to."

Kanda paused for a moment before turning his head to the side and saying, "Che. Why the fuck not?"

"Yay!" said Lenalee happily, clapping her hands, "Can we meet sometime next week a my house? My brother's being all weird and doesn't like me hanging out with you all because he doesn't know you. So I'm hoping that him meeting you will make him calm down a bit."

"The fuck?" snapped Kanda, turning to face her, "Your brother's known me for three years! Why's he being so fucking stupid still?"

"I think firstly, because you're male, and he doesn't trust males who are around me. Second, he hasn't gotten over the beaker incident."

"Oh, what the- Jesus, he needs to get the fuck over it."

"Hold on," said Allen, frowning, "I'm in his class. He knows me!"

"So am I man!" said Lavi pouting, "And I've been to your house a bunch of times. I thought we had established a bond of trust here!"

Lenalee shrugged an replied, "Like I said: He's being weird."

* * *

**31****st**** March 2014**

On the Monday before the parent-teacher conferences began, after school Lenalee, her brother and the three boys piled into the Lees' car and drove off towards their house. Allen, being the smallest, was elected to be sat in the middle, jammed in between Kanda and Lavi. Kanda refused to look or even talk to him and Lavi kept trying to touch parts of the white haired boy's anatomy that he didn't want to be touched, so the entire car ride was a constant battle of trying to keep Lavi's hands to himself. The two Lees sat in the front, chattering about the school day and other things. Eventually, Lenalee turned around in her seat to face them and asked, "So, you guys are staying for dinner right?"

The three in the back looked confused for a moment, unsure whether they could when Komui said, "My darling sister just invited you all to dinner. It would be _rude _to turn her down."

There was something in the tone of his voice that made the three of them say in union, "Yes, I would like to stay for dinner thank you."

"Brother…" sighed Lenalee exasperatedly whilst Komui nodded approval. It turned out that the Lees lived in a terrace house in Fitzroy, which, Allen thought, was a very nice suburb. Most of the house were all heritage buildings built in the Victorian Era, and each had a very well tended garden. As they drove down the street she lived on, Lenalee explained that this area was mainly student housing because one of Melbourne's many universities was nearby. So it wasn't uncommon for there to be riotous parties at least once a week and for some reason some of the students had taken to hanging teddy bears by the neck from the tree in the Lees' front yard.

Lenalee's house had four storeys, including an attic, and was incredibly narrow. It looked old on the outside but the inside was actually incredibly modern. Allen had to admit that whoever designed this place did a very good job and the Lees had a tasteful eye for furnishings. The staircase to the upper levels was at the end of the corridor leading from the front doorway and just as Lenalee mounted it, Komui said, "Lenalee dear, may I have a talk with your friends for a moment?"

Lenalee groaned and said exasperatedly, "Brother! Don't, you're just going to embarrass yourself and _me _for that matter!"

"I'll try not to and it'll only be for a moment!" whined Komui. Lenalee stared at him for a moment before sighing and saying, "You're not going to let them come upstairs without having this talk, are you?"

Komui shook his head and Lenalee huffed, "Fine! But I expect them up in the attic in three minutes, alright?"

Komui nodded eagerly and the Chinese girl disappeared up the stairs, throwing an apologetic smile towards the three boys. Allen's face fell and he thought, _Great. There goes our last line of defence. _

Komui then turned on them, a very dangerous glint in his eyes as he said in a low voice, "Now. Let's have a little chat, shall we?"

* * *

"It's official!" said Lavi as the three of them came into the attic ten minutes later, "Your brother is crazy! Completely crazy! Bat-shit, too many roos loose in the top paddock, round the bend insane! Seriously, I could send him to court for some of the threats he made!"

"It sounded like he'd actually carry them out, too," said Allen, shuddering, "Lenalee, I hate to break it to you but the chance of you being allowed to have a boyfriend before you're thirty is pretty much zero."

"I know," groaned Lenalee, pinching the bridge of her nose, "Please to rub it in. God, he's so embarrassing. I'm really sorry about that. But I swear he gets better… sort of."

"Lenalee, there's a reason that whenever I come over we have to sneak in through the back window," growled Kanda, "Your brother's fucking insane."

Lenalee sighed, looking tired and embarrassed and opened her mouth to say something when Allen exclaimed, "Hold on! Lenalee… are you an Otaku?"

The walls of Lenalee's attic room were covered with posters of different animes and quiet a few good drawing that looked like Lenalee had done herself. One side of the room was covered with an enormous bookcase that not only supported novels but also dozens of volumes of manga, numerous anime DVDs and along the top, lots of anime plushies, lined in rows.

"Hm?" said Lenalee, following Allen's gaze, "Oh yeah, I love this stuff! Do you watch any?"

"Not really," said Allen, walking up to the wall to examine one of the drawings, "Did you do these fan art ones yourself?"

"Some of them," she replied, "But others were done by an artist I know. He's really good at drawing in this particular style."

"Allen," said Lavi, a warning note in his tone, "Don't get her started. It could go on for hours."

"Oh, I do not go on for _that _long!" protested Lenalee. Kanda folded his arms and said, "Che. Yes you do. Just like everyone one else in your goddamn fandom."

* * *

**A/N: Yay! Civilisation! And you have to admit that Kanda's last comment is true about the majority of Otakus (myself included). See you next time!**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

**4****th**** April 2014**

"WOOT! FREEDOM!" shouted Lavi pumping his fist in the air and doing a little scissor-kick jump in the air. There were a few agreeing cheers from students walking home around them and for once Allen wasn't embarrassed by one of Lavi's compulsive little outbursts. To be honest, he kind of felt like celebrating himself. The temperature had finally cooled down and school had finished up for the term so now they had two weeks of wonderful freedom.

"So Brit, how does your first term of Australian school shape up?" asked Lavi, grinning, "Better or worse than Brit school?"

"It's still school so they both measure up about the same," replied Allen, "But the I prefer some of the people here."

"Aww, thanks Brit."

"How do you know I was talking about you?"

"Intuition and a fool's hope. What about our resident bad tempered Japanese man? He fall into the preferred people category?"

"No. Definitely not. He falls into the Annoying Prick Who Needs To Go Walk Off A Cliff category. Oh, make that the Arrogant Annoying Prick. God, he's so full of himself, just because he's good looking and a good student…"

"Brit dude, seriously, your crushing my fucking soul here. I'm now pretty much one hundred per cent, no joke, deep as the Atlantic Ocean convinced that you like him."

"Oh for god's sake NO! I'm not! I much prefer redheads to-" Allen cut off mid sentence, blushing, and without looking at Lavi started running, calling over his shoulder, "The crossing lights are changing and I want to get home, so, uh, bye!"

"You're not escaping me Brit!" he heard Lavi shout and then the thump of running footsteps behind him. It was like being chase by a particularly persistent grey hound the colour of a fire hydrant. After a few minutes of weaving his way quickly through the crowd he was suddenly almost bowled over by the hyperactive teens attack.

"Aha!" yelled Lavi, "I have caught my target! The prize is mine! I'm going to take you away and chain you up in my dungeon!"

"That is so many forms of kinky, wrong _and _illegal. I'm calling the police," said Allen from the headlock Lavi was holding him in.

"Not if I steal your phone you won't be! Then you'll be completely defenceless! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"I don't even have to look and I know that a lot of people are staring at us strangely. Please let go of my neck, I think I may be choking," Lavi obliged and Allen straightened up and went about fixing his ruffled hair and clothes. He then added, "And please don't steal my phone. If my godfather ever comes back he'd kill me if I got it stolen."

"If?" said Lavi, raising an eyebrow. Allen glanced at him and asked, "If what?"

"You said _if _your godfather ever comes back."

"Well it is very likely that he's been shot by angry debt collectors and his body disposed of in some river in some remote part of the world. Or he may have just forgotten about me and may or may not remember that he has a godson that needs looking after when he wakes up out of whatever drunken stupor he's currently in."

Lavi stared at him for a moment, then whistled and said, "Wow. Gramps may be violent but at least he takes care of me."

"Cross is also violent, but seeing that he's abandoned me he's currently not around to enact that violence. I guess that's one advantage of him not being around."

"What the fuck dude!" shouted Lavi, "Your godfather is fucked! Fucked man! Like seriously!" he grabbed a passing year seven by the shoulder and said, "You know what I mean?"

The year seven, looking slightly terrified, shook her head frantically before running off. Lavi laughed and said, "Ah, that never gets old!"

Allen gave his friend a strange look and then said, "You've just convinced me that you're bipolar."

* * *

**6****th**** April 2014**

When Kanda's phone started beeping consistently when it was inundated with a myriad of text messages at six-thirty in the morning it was needless to say that he wasn't put in the best of moods. He admitted that he wasn't in the best of moods… well, ever, but this one was particularly bad. He rolled over, groaning and jammed the pillow over his head but the phone's insistent beeping still penetrated his ears. Eventually he gave up, threw back the covers and sat up, a scowl on his face. When he looked out the window he saw that it was still dark. He gritted his teeth and snatched his phone up from the side tabled, snarling, "Someone important had better have fucking died."

By important, he meant directly related to him. His temper only frayed more when he saw that all the texts were either from that fucking persistent old geezer or those useless, moronic, fuckwits who insisted on calling themselves his foster-brothers, even though he had made it very fucking clear to all of them that he had seceded and wanted nothing more to do with any of them. The only reason he had agreed to stay with them in the first place was that if he didn't he'd keep getting shunted from foster home to foster home until he turned eighteen and then would've probably turned out as a hopeless, homeless drug addict stranded on the streets of Tokyo. Not a pleasant thought. Plus, the old geezer had put up with his outbursts but was still fucking annoying.

He turned his attention to the text messages. The first ten were all from Tiedoll telling him to get up because he was missing 'The Best Part Of The Day!' That made Kanda's blood boil and surfaced some unpleasant memories of living in that stupid house with that lot. The next few were from the useless morons. Those one's were a little strange because usually most of them were asleep at this time of day like a _fucking normal human being. _And then he came across another message from Tiedoll that made his blood run cold.

**We're coming to visit you today Yuu-kun! Be there soon! Xxx **

Kanda reread the message just in case he'd missed something, and then, with growing horror, read the next message. This one was from Marie, reading:

**Kanda, we can't remember, do you live in Fitzroy or Fitzroy North?**

Panic building inside him, Kanda flicked to the next one, which was from that idiot Daisya:

**No wozzers, we rememd u in Fitzroy which street again?**

Another text message came in and he opened it quickly and felt his stomach drop out:

**Don't worry Kanda, we've found your street. Looking forward to seeing you! Chaoji. **

Kanda glanced out the window, and sure enough, a pair of headlights came around the corner of the street and an all too familiar grey van pulled up out the front. Kanda stared, frozen for a moment before saying, "Oh shit," and leaping out of bed. He ran over to his wardrobe and yanked it open, pulling on some black jeans over his boxers and throwing on a black t-shirt. Whilst he was pulling his hair out from underneath his collar her ran into the kitchen and grabbed his keys and wallet, which were sitting on the small kitchen table. The doorbell suddenly rang but he ignored it and ran back into his room and opened the window as quietly as he could and peered out. The four idiots were standing at the gate that was the front entrance to his part of the apartment.

"… don't think he's going to answer dad," came Marie's voice, "You know how he is."

"Maybe I should try just a couple more rings," came Tiedoll's reply. Kanda heard Daisya chuckle and said, "No worries. I'll climb over and let us in from the inside. Chaoji, gimme a boost."

Kanda watched with incredulity and anger as his moronic ex foster-family started fucking _breaking _into his house. For fuck's sake they were persistent.

"Fuck," he muttered and closed the window as quietly as he could. He then turned, ran over to the cupboard where he stashed his junk and threw it open. His apartment block was actually just a large terrace house that had been divided into three apartments that were specially priced for disadvantaged minors, one downstairs, and two upstairs. Because they had all once been the same house, all the apartments were connected. The connection between his apartment and the other upstairs one was for some reason in his cupboard. The door that connected the two had once been locked but the previous tenants had lost the key and no one had ever gotten around to replacing it so now it just remained unlocked. And for that, Kanda was very grateful right now.

He slammed the door of the cupboard behind him before throwing open the other door, stepping into the other apartment, shutting it after him. He was running along the corridor when the apartment's tenant, a pink-haired girl called Fou, came out of the kitchen holding a glass of water wearing nothing but a white t-shirt and some underwear. When she saw him she screamed, "HOLY SHIT!" and threw the glass at him. Kanda ducked it but got doused with the water.

"What the fuck?!" he shouted, "Why the fuck did you throw a fucking glass at me?!"

"Why the fuck are _you _in my apartment?!" Fou screeched back, "Jesus, coming to live out your sick secret Lolita fetish?"

"What? Fuck no! I'm escaping for my fucking psychotic, stalkerish relatives!"

Fou stared at him confusedly for a minute before shrugging and saying, "Legit reason. But why're you coming through here? Why not use, oh I don't know, _your own fucking front door!_"

"Because those assholes are currently breaking into my apartment through my fucking front door."

"Breaking in? What the fuck man? Why didn't you call the police?"

"No time."

Fou glanced down and grinned saying, "I can see that since you ain't got any fucking shoes on."

Kanda sneered snapping, "Che. Can I fucking go now? I need to be out of here before the finishing searching my apartment."

Fou sighed before she waved for him to follow her, saying, "Come on. I'll let you out," she disappeared quickly into the kitchen before coming back out with some keys and gesturing for him to follow her, "When we're downstairs don't worry about being quiet. The twins are overseas visiting family in… fuck, I can't remember. Someplace near Spain. Began wit think."

By this stage they had reached the stairs and hurried down them towards the front door that led out onto the other street the house faced. Kanda's frown deepened as he said, "You mean Portugal?"

"Yeah, that's the one," said Fou, unlocking the door and opening it. Kanda hurried through and she said, "Good luck out there man. Go mug someone for shoes and get arrested would ya?"

"Fuck you!" snapped Kanda before he vaulted over the fence and ran up the street, ignoring Fou's laughter behind him.

* * *

"Dude, I am still so confused though as why you're _here," _said Lavi sleepily as Kanda paced around his room, "It's like, quarter past seven on a Sunday. That's too fucking early man. And why didn't you go to Lenalady? She lives like, four streets away from you. Would be easier than coming out here to fucking _Brunswick_."

"What do you think her brother's reaction would be if I turned up at their house?" snapped Kanda irritably, "He'd fucking kill me. And besides, her house is too close to mine. They could find me with their fucking, I don't know, stalker powers of destiny or whatever the fuck they used to find me the first time."

Lavi perked up at this and asked slowly, "So basically… you have to hide for your weird family."

"_Ex foster-_family, yeah."

A grin suddenly appeared on Lavi's face and he said, "So basically, I have to help hide you from them."

Kanda narrowed his eyes suspiciously, not liking where this was going and replied, "Yes…"

"WOOT!" yelled Lavi jumping to his feet a bouncing around a bit on his bed. Kanda scowled and snarled, "Calm the fuck down rabbit!"

"No! This is exciting!" said Lavi, grinning like a child on Christmas morning, "Operation Hide-Yuu-Kanda-From-His-Psychotic-Family-Until-Further-Notice, is go!"


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

**7****th**** April 2014**

"Operation Hide-Yuu-Kanda-From-His-Psychotic-Family-Until-Further-Notice was a failure," said Lavi dejectedly, rubbing Timcampy's ears morosely, "I mean, it worked until this morning. It was so fucked Brit, seriously. We were just out getting coffee and suddenly this grey van comes screeching up to the sidewalk and Yuu didn't even have time to run when suddenly these two big-ish guys jump out of the van, grab him and drag him kicking and screaming into the van before slamming the door shut and driving off. I was so surprised that I just sort of stood there probably looking like a fucking stoner or something for a while with these two cups of coffee in my hand and thinking, '_the fuck just happened?' _But then I remembered that your place was nearby and I had this spare coffee, so I came to visit you. So here I am now."

"Lavi," said Allen slowly, "Three things. Number one, why does Kanda's coffee taste _salty? _Number two, a long time ago a man named Alexander Graham Bell invented a wonderful thing called the telephone, and seeing that I gave you my number, why didn't you bloody _call _me and come in through the front door instead of coming through the balcony door _again. _And finally, it sounds like Kanda just got kidnapped. You just witnessed a kidnapping along with everyone else who was on that street at the time and I don't doubt that someone's called the police by now."

"Kanda takes his coffee with salt," replied Lavi with a shrug, "Don't ask me why, he just does. And I wanted to surprise you! And maybe catch sight of you naked if I was lucky, but I wasn't, which is a shame…"

"Illegal!" called Allen from the kitchen where he was pouring the disgusting coffee down the sink, "You're having illegal thoughts again!"

"It's love baby!" Lavi called back, "And weird stuff like weird family kidnappings happen around here all the time, so people just take it in their stride. Unless it's a girl being dragged into a van by one or more guys. Then people will call the police."

"Well, the police should be arriving at Kanda's family home any minute now," said Allen, rolling his eyes. Lavi chuckled and replied, "Yeah, you should be covered for public support in case of kidnapping too. But I don't think the good people of Brunswick were fooled. Kanda was screaming some very manly stuff… in Japanese as well as English."

"You know, I really can't feel sorry for the prick," said Allen thoughtfully, "Not after he tried to drown me. I believe this is known as karma."

Lavi opened his mouth to say something but at that moment his phone began to ring. He pulled it out and glanced at the screen then broke out into a big grin, saying, "It's Yuu! I better get this," he hit the speaker phone button so Allen could hear and said, "Hey man! You're alive! How goes it?"

"_YOU FUCKING TRAITOR!_" screamed Kanda's voice, made crackly by the small speaker, "_WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T YOU DO ANYTHING! NOW I'M STUCK WITH THESE ASSHOLES!_"

Lavi laughed and replied, "Sorry man, but they kind of caught me off guard. I had 'surprise paralysis' or something."

"_Fuck you!_" Kanda snapped, "_I'm going to fucking punch your teeth out the next time I see you._"

"I love you too," said Lavi, "So, are you calling just to berate me for abandoning you or something, because if you are can I hang up? I happen to be in the apartment of a smoking hot Brit we both know and I'm hoping to get past first base."

Allen sighed and there was silence from the other end of the phone before, "_The moyashi's there?_"

"It's Allen you jerk!" snapped Allen. There was a groan and then, "_Oh fucking hell, my day is just getting worse. This is going to make this so much harder…_" there was a pause before, "_I need to… to ask you guys a… a… a favour._"

"What was that?" said Allen and Lavi at the same time. They grinned at each before Lavi continued, "Sorry, we couldn't quite here you. Could you repeat that?"

"_I need a fucking favour, alright!_"

"Sorry, the reception's really shit here. One more time…"

"_I will castrate you rabbit._"

"Okay, okay!" said Lavi chuckling. Allen, still grinning, asked, "So what's this favour that you need us to carry out? Let it be known to you that with all the name-calling, threats of violence, actual violence and outright jerkiness that you've done to us, we might not be inclined to carry out this favour."

"_Yeah, yeah, shut the fuck up_," snapped Kanda, "_Here's the deal. My ex foster-family of escaped lunatics says that I have to go to this family dinner thing but I don't want to go alone because… because they're them. So I kind of… need you guys… to come? Mainly to make sure that all their fucking annoying attention isn't on __**me**__._"

"Sure, we'll come," said Allen pleasantly. Lavi glanced at him incredulously but Allen held up a hand to keep him silent and continued, "If you ask us nicely."

"_Che,_" came Kanda's reply, "_Can you come to the stupid dinner thing with me?_"

"I don't think I heard the magic word in that sentence. Did you Lavi?" said Allen sweetly. Lavi grinned back at him and said, "Nope. I definitely didn't. You'll have to ask us again Yuu."

"_Don't fucking call me that!_" snapped Kanda, "_Why the fuck are you two acting like complete fuckwits?_"

"Tut tut tut!" said Allen, shaking his head, "If you want us to come with you you're going to have to be nice. Otherwise we'll just sit back and watch you suffer."

"And I'll probably be recording your suffering," said Lavi evilly, "And I'll upload the video to YouTube."

"_I fucking hate you both, you know that?_"

"Nice, Kanda. We want nice."

There was a loud crash, as Kanda no doubt broke something solid with his bare hands before there was a begrudging, "_Can you come to the stupid dinner thing with me… __**please**__?" _

"See!" said Allen happily, hi-fiving Lavi as they barely managed to contain their laughter, "That wasn't so hard now, was it? Now when's this dinner thing?"

* * *

**8****th**** April 2014 **

"I can't believe you two," said Lenalee as she, Allen and Lavi walked down a shopping strip in the CBD, "He's suffering enough as it is without you guys adding to his misery."

Allen smiled and said, "Thinking of it as a comeuppance, for all those times he's called me _moyashi." _

"And I just wanted to get him riled up," grinned Lavi, "I would've come even if he didn't say please because Yuu around his family is fucking A-grade hilarious."

Lenalee shook her head and muttered, "I despair at the both of you… oh look, there they are!"

Allen looked to where she was staring and saw Kanda leaning up against a redbrick building with his arms folded and a particularly angry scowl on his face. Standing near him, obviously trying to converse with the Japanese teen was a short but muscular young man dressed in green who's scruffy black hair was being held back by a white head band. Standing nearby was a tall dark skinned man who's one tuft of dark hair was tied on the top of his head. He was talking to a shorter man with brown hair and strange tear-like purple tattoos running down his face. Watching them all with a smile on his face was an elderly gentleman with a shock of curly grey hair and a grey moustache, dressed in a scruffy beige suit. A pair of red glasses were perched on the end nose.

"The old dude is Yuu's foster-dad, Tiedoll," said Lavi quickly to Allen as they approached the group, "The dude trying and failing to talk to Yuu is his youngest foster-brother Chaoji. The black dude is his eldest foster-brother, Marie. Don't tease him about his name, he will mess you up. And the other dude is his other elder foster-brother Daisya. You got all that?"

"I think so…" said Allen, feeling a little confused as Lenalee called out, "Hi Kanda! We're here!"

Kanda's mood immediately seemed to lighten when he heard her (he stopped looking like he was going to murder someone and started looking more like he'd was just got to punch someone) and he started to push himself off the wall to greet them when Tiedoll suddenly ran forward and grabbed Lenalee by the hands and said happily with a slight French accent, "Lenalee! So good to see you again! It's been a while hasn't it? You look particularly stunning this evening."

Allen did have to agree with the man there. Lenalee was wearing a beautiful black dress, elegant black boots and she had tied her hair back into a singular ponytail rather than two. The whole outfit made her look a bit older and very beautiful. Allen noticed with a smirk that Kanda seemed to think so too, judging by the blush on his cheeks and the way he was staring at her in amazement. The Japanese boy shook his head as if to clear it and then snapped at Tiedoll, "Quit flirting with her you old pervert, it's creepy!"

"I am not, Yuu-kun!" said Tiedoll indignantly, "I am just saying that she looks very beautiful!"

"Yeah, but the way you say it is fucking creepy!"

Tiedoll shook a finger at Kanda and said sternly, "Language, Yuu-kun. You have to behave like a gentleman tonight. No swearing."

"I can swear when I fu-"

"Kanda," interrupted Lenalee, "No swearing tonight, okay? Please? For me?"

Kanda stared at her for a moment before glancing away and muttering, "Fine."

"Good boy, Yuu-kun!" said Tiedoll delightedly, ignoring the death glare that was shot his way. He then turned to the other two boys and said, "Lavi! Good to see you! You're looking well!"

_Well isn't a good enough term for it, _thought a traitorous part of Allen's mind. The redhead looked incredibly handsome, dressed in clean, non-patchwork covered denim jean and a plain black t-shirt. He had ditched his usual sparkly headband so his hair fell in a shaggy curtain, framing his face. He still had the eye patch but the whole outfit made the green of his eyes stand out beautifully.

"And who is this young man?" asked Tiedoll suddenly, snapping Allen out of his reverie. The white haired boy quickly regained his composure and stuck out a hand, saying, "Hello sir. My name is Allen Walker. I'm… an acquaintance of Kanda's."

"Ah!" said Tiedoll, a big smile breaking out over his face, "A fellow European! How long have you been in Australia _mon ami?" _

"Just on four months now," replied Allen, "I moved here with my godfather."

Tiedoll suddenly narrowed his eyes and asked, "You said your name was Walker, correct?"

"Yes…" said Allen nervously whilst also thinking, _Please let this not be another Portugal related incident…_

"Your godfather wouldn't happen to be Cross Marian, would he?" asked Tiedoll, a hint of sympathy coming into his eyes. Allen felt a flood of relief. He could deal with angry debt-collectors. People related to Portugal were a different matter. He nodded affirmative and Tiedoll sighed and said, "He was a student of mine at university. Brilliant mind but not a very agreeable person I'm afraid. Seduced just about every girl in the class and then just up and left the university one day never to be seen or heard from again. I heard about his big career breakthroughs in the science and literature worlds though. So, he's in Australia then, is he?"

"Uh…" Allen was saved having to answer by Kanda snapping, "Hey! I thought we were here for dinner. Let's go in for fu- god's sake!"

Allen quickly hurried over to his friends and Kanda's brothers to avoid any more awkward questions from Tiedoll and they all trouped into the restaurant. It was a small but quaint Italian place. Once inside they were immediately greeted by a young, grinning waiter with too much gel in his hair. Marie, (who Allen noticed suddenly with a start was blind), told him their booking name and they were guided to the upstairs portion of the restaurant. They all seated themselves around a round, white tablecloth covered table and proceeded to discuss menu options.

Allen, seated between Lenalee and Lavi, started to list off menu options he wanted, "I want the spaghetti Bolognese, the Napolitano pasta, the carbonara, a margarita pizza… actually make that three, and five portions of garlic bread and…"

"Jesus Christ kid!" exclaimed Daisya, "Slow down! There's no freaking way that you can eat that much in one go!"

"Oh yes he can," said Lenalee, Lavi and Kanda at the same time. This caused Lenalee, Allen and Lavi to burst out laughing a Kanda to have a fit of shoulder spasms. Daisya rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded like, "_Teenagers…_"

"Oh my god!" cried Lavi suddenly. There were a few curious glances from the other customers around them and Allen resisted the urge to face palm as he sighed, "What is it this time Lavi?"

"Keep it down rabbit," growled Kanda. Lavi ignored him and said frantically, gesturing at the menu, "Look at all the pasta options! It takes up, like, two entire pages of the menu! I thought there were only three types: Meaty, creamy and tomatoey. My life is a lie. A complete lie."

"How did you not know that there was more than that?" groaned Allen, shaking his head, "Typical American."

"Hey, watch it Brit."

Kanda said nothing, but slapped a hand to his forehead and dragged it down over his face. Marie laughed and said, "You learn something new every day."

"You know, I'm surprised," said Chaoji, smiling around at the three of them, "That, you know, you're Kanda's friends. I didn't know he could _make _friends."

At a glare from Kanda, he flinched and started stuttering, "Wait, no, that came out wrong! What I mean is… oh I'm sorry Kanda, I didn't mean to offend you! I mean, you had that group and your friend over in Japan and-"

"Dude!" snapped Daisya suddenly, elbowing his brother in the side, "Stop talking!"

A look of what Allen could only describe as 'Scary Calm' had come over Kanda's face and he was staring at Chaoji in a way that would've made Allen run for the hills. Lenalee saw it too, and in order to prevent Chaoji from being brutally hacked to death with a butter knife, she took hold of his ponytail (which was tied at the base of his neck rather than at the top of the back of his head like it usually was) and tugged it lightly. That immediately got Kanda's attention as he turned to her and gave her a questioning look. All she did was smile at him and say, "You're wearing your hair differently. I like it."

Allen glanced over towards Tiedoll and saw that he was barely containing whatever 'awwing' sound was in his throat.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

**8****th**** April 2014 **

"Jesus, I am in such a food coma," moaned Lavi as he, Allen, Kanda and Lenalee walked up a street in Brunswick towards his house. It was dark and the streetlights that were placed along the length of the street were doing a rubbish job at illuminating it so the four of them were basically stumbling around blind. The reason why the four of them were heading towards Lavi's place was… a little confusing. Lenalee had decided that she couldn't be bothered going back to Fitzroy and so had sent her brother a brief text saying that she was crashing at Lavi's place before turning her phone off to avoid the probable million panicked calls and texts she would receive. Allen had been getting ready to head off towards the tram stop he needed to get home when Lavi had grabbed him by the back of his shirt and dragged him onto the tram, saying he was joining the sleepover if he liked it or not. Allen actually found that he was a bit pleased that Lavi had forced him to come along. And Kanda… Kanda had run through a lane of moving traffic to jump on the tram at the last minute to escape his family.

"There a fucking problem with me coming?" he had snapped at them with a dangerous glint in his eyes that said '_and which one of you is going to stop me?' _There had been many headshakes after that and so here they all were.

Lavi's house was a low building jammed in between an imposing brick building with a spiky fence and a sign on the gate reading TOUCH THE LEMON TREE AND I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND STAB YOU REPEATEDLY, and a dingy old building that he said belonged to a bunch of drug dealers.

"It's a perfectly safe neighbourhood though," explained the redhead as he opened the gate and walked up to the front porch, "Except someone keeps jumping our fence and stealing our vegetables. It's really annoying."

He unlocked the front door and the four of them filed in through the front door into the hallway. Allen noticed with amusement that the hall was lined with one long bookcase made up entirely out of wooden boxes. When Lavi noticed where he was staring he said, "You wouldn't believe how hard that stupid shelf was to put together. It was like playing Jenga with oversized, weirdly shaped pieces, and every time it fell down it would fall down on top of the constructor along with a shit tonne of books. I had so many bruises by the time I was done. I could barely walk but my dictator-like grandpa…"

"What was that you were saying about me Lavi?" came a stern voice from the end of the corridor, "I couldn't quite hear you? Care to repeat?"

Lavi suddenly snapped to attention and said, "Hey, gramps! Didn't see you there! I was just saying what a great grandpa you are."

"That's what I thought you said," said the man standing at the end of the corridor. He was incredibly small, barely coming up to Allen's elbow (_And Kanda calls __**me **__moyashi, _thought Allen). He had a single ponytail of grey hair protruding from the top of his head and for some reason the areas around his eyes were very dark, making him look very much like a panda. He was currently standing with his arms folded, glaring at them through narrowed eyes. For some reason he made Allen want to stand to attention like Lavi was.

"I didn't realise that I would have teenagers congregating en masse in my house tonight," he said calmly. Allen could here the same American accent Lavi had in his voice but a mixture of a few others that he couldn't place as well, "You could have called and said we had guests Lavi. That's what telephones are for."

"Yes, but pressing all the buttons is too much of a pain," whined Lavi. His grandpa looked unimpressed and deadpanned, "That's why I got you an iPhone. You need to tap it once and it will make the call."

Lavi was silent and then shrugged. His grandpa sighed and then turned to the other three, greeting, "Hello Lenalee. Your brother called and told me to tell you to call him," he then glared at Kanda and said stiffly, "Hello Kanda. Still wearing your hair in a ponytail I see."

"Still got a weird complex about it I see," Kanda snapped back. The old man looked displeased but then turned to Allen and said, "And you must be Allen Walker. Lavi's told me a lot about you."

"Uh, pleased to meet you sir," said Allen. The old man nodded approval at his manners and then said, "You can call me Bookman," he glanced around at the lot of them and then said, "Seeing that all of you will no doubt be staying, you can set up beds and things in the lounge room. Lenalee, you call your brother. Lavi, show the other two where the mattresses are. I will make tea."

* * *

About five minutes later, Lenalee came storming back into the lounge room where Lavi was throwing sheets of two of the mattresses that had been brought in. She stomped over to one of them, throwing herself down on top of it with a huff, phone in hand. Lavi gave her a sympathetic look and said, "Your brother being a pain again?"

"He is such a paranoid asshole sometimes!" snapped Lenalee, "I know he does it because he loves me and wants to protect me but for god's sake, I'm sixteen! I can look after myself! And he needs to stop thinking that all guys are constantly after my virginity! It's so obnoxious."

"And kind of awkward for us guys…" said Lavi, scratching the back of his head. Lenalee let out another huff before glancing around and asking, "Where're Kanda and Allen?"

"Getting the big mattress from upstairs," replied Lavi, jerking his head in the direction of the room next door, where the staircase was. As if on cue, Kanda voice came shouting from that direction, "For fuck's sake _moyashi! _Move it to the left!"

"I can't bloody well move it to the left because I'll fall off the bloody staircase if I do!" came Allen's angry reply.

"Go on! Make my fucking day! Why don't you do just that?!"

"You are such a- wait. Hold on. Kanda, I'm overbalancing. Overbalancing here! Kanda!"

"Fuck, I hear you _moyashi! _Jesus, try pushing it back up… no you fuckwit! Other way!"

"I'm trying! It's just- oh god, falling! Falling!"

"No! _Moyashi! _Don't fucking drag me down with you!"

"Can't hold it-"

"Oh shit-"

There was an almighty crash and numerous thumps before an incredibly loud torrent of swearing in English, Japanese and Heavily British Accented English accosted the two listeners' ears. It wasn't long before the swearing out of pain was directed at each other.

"Fuck you _moyashi, _now look what you've done!"

"What _I've _done?! It was more you than me you imbecile! Ow, my arm is hurting so bloody much right now…"

"I hope it's fucking broken like my fucking ankle probably is! Ow, fuck that hurts! RABBIT! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU?! COME HELP US!"

Lavi, barely able to contain his laughter, glanced at Lenalee who, also trying to contain her laughter, managed to ask, "You don't think they're actually hurt do you?"

"Nah. Us guys, made of rubber. Very doubtful they've broken anything," replied Lavi with a grin. There was another bout of agonized swearing from the stairs and he frowned and added, "At least I hope so."

* * *

Luckily, the two mattress moving extraordinaires hadn't injured themselves too badly, and were now grumbling about each other from opposite ends of the mattress line they had created. Seeing that Allen had decided to sleep on the double mattress he had almost killed himself moving, Lavi immediately called, "Dibs sleeping with the Brit!" and Allen suddenly found himself getting glomped by a hyperactive American.

"Lavi, personal space- Ow! Arm, arm!" moaned Allen as he tried to wriggle out of the other boy's hug but his grip was vice-like. Lavi grinned at him and said, "Sorry Brit, but you're most certainly not getting out of this one."

Whilst this was happening, Lenalee had thrown herself down of the single mattress next to Kanda, who had immediately started looking nervous. When she saw his expression, she grinned mischievously and poked his face, saying, "What's the matter Kanda? Afraid I have Girl Germs?"

"No! I just- no! It's not- shut the fuck up _moyashi," _snapped Kanda when he caught sight of Allen's smirk. Lenalee laughed and said lightly, "If it's my brother you're worried about you don't have to worry. What he doesn't know won't hurt him."

"But it might hurt _me _if he ever finds out," replied Kanda. Lenalee patted him on the arm and said, "If that ever happens I'll be here to protect you, okay?"

Kanda stared at her for a moment before flushing, lying down, rolling over to face away from her and muttering something that sounded like, "Going to sleep now…"

Lenalee stared at him confusedly and then shot a questioning look at Allen who only smiled and shook his head. It was then that Allen caught sight of Lavi's expression. A sinking feeling began in his chest as he asked with a sigh, "What is it this time?"

"Hmm?" said Lavi, looking at him innocently. Allen wasn't fooled as he continued, "You've got that look on your face that you get when you're coming up with a crackpot theory. So what is it this time?"

"Well since you asked," replied Lavi, "You're an orphan aren't you?"

Allen blinked. He hadn't exactly expected the conversation to go towards his parents but he replied slowly, "Yes…"

"And I know that Lenalady's an orphan and Kanda probably is too," Lavi continued, "And I'm a metaphorical orphan… so we can all be orphans together!"

Kanda rolled over to glare at him and snapped, "Fucking great. We can all be fucking miserable together because our parents are fucking _gone. _Whoop-die-fucking doo."

"What do you mean by a _metaphorical _orphan?" asked Allen, frowning. Lavi rolled his eye and said, "My mom and dad were way too rich for their own good and stuff. Practically rolling in cash. They liked to travel and that shit, and although they were married I think they just kind of got married for the sake of being married. They weren't really serious about the relationship, you know? And they definitely didn't want to have a kid but," he gestured to himself, "They got one. Anywho, neither of them could be bothered looking after me properly so I stayed with gramps a lot. Then they got divorced and couldn't be bothered fighting for custody of me so they just signed me over to gramps when I was five. Then my dad moved to Argentina and my mom moved to Germany and I haven't seen or heard from them since. I don't even know if they're still living there or anything. So yeah, metaphorical orphan."

"Holy crap," said Lenalee quietly. Allen was lost for words before saying, "My god. What arseholes. Aren't you mad at them?"

Lavi shrugged and replied, "Not really. I barely remember them and shit so I can't really be angry at people I don't even know."

There was silence for a moment before Allen said, "It's frustrating not knowing more about them, right?"

"I guess," said Lavi thoughtfully, "Why, you got someone like that?"

"My mum," admitted Allen, "She died of a heart attack when I was only a year old so I don't remember her at all, and Mana… that's my dad, he didn't like to talk about her. Too painful for him I think. So I understand the frustration of not knowing."

There was another long silence before Kanda groaned, "Jesus Christ, thanks for being needlessly depressing."

* * *

**A/N: ... Yeah, I decided to put heavy stuff in this story too. *sigh***


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14 

**9****th**** April 2014 **

Kanda woke up the next morning to find that sometime during the night Lenalee had rolled over onto his mattress and was now pressed up against him. Thanking whatever power may govern the luck passages that the other two were still asleep he started to slowly edge himself into a position that he could roll her back onto her own mattress. However, the minute he tried to move she kind of… latched onto his arm. He tried to remove his arm from her but… Jesus Christ this girl was strong! He tried to gently pry her arms from around his, but all that did was make her squeeze tighter.

_Fucking hell! _he thought as he flopped back down onto the mattress, giving up, _She must do Pilates or something. _

Then to his horror (and guilty delight), she started… nuzzling his neck and then just rested there, her arms wrapped around his arm and her face pressed against the crook of his neck. Kanda lay there, feeling more than a little nervous, praying to… whatever he prayed to, to make sure that the other two morons in the room _stayed asleep. _

_Please let her let go, _he thought desperately, _I don't want to look like some fucking creepy pervert and I don't want her lunatic brother finding out about this. But… it's kind of nice, just lying here with her and she looks so beautiful and peaceful…_

This thought was immediately cut into a thousand tiny pieces by Kanda's psychological samurai sword and then burnt. With Wildfire. Game of Thrones style.

Suddenly, there was the soft but unmistakable sound of an iPhone taking a photo. He glanced over and his eyes widened in horror when he saw the stupid rabbit tucking his phone away. The rabbit grinned at him, making a peace sign, before rolling over and latching onto the _moyashi. _

_That fuckwit, _thought Kanda venomously, _Is so fucking dead. And that phone will be at the bottom of the Yarra River within the next two hours, I swear. _

* * *

**20****th**** April 2014 **

"You know, I am such a devoted friend," said Lavi grumpily as he and Allen walked up the street towards where Kanda supposedly lived, (Allen thought the address was probably a lie and the prick lived in a cardboard box or something), "Even after he tossed my phone in the river I still come to visit him bearing chocolate on Easter Sunday."

"Yes, after everything he's done to you it's a surprise you still even talk to the prick," said Allen, glancing around at the houses they were walking past. They weren't too far from Lenalee's house and the neighbourhood was much the same as hers. Very nice architecture.

"Here we are!" announced Lavi, stopping outside a large brick terrace building. Allen stared for a moment, rubbed his eyes to make he wasn't seeing things, and then said incredulously, "Kanda lives _here? _How can he afford to pay the rent?!"

"Hm?" said Lavi as they moved to a smaller side street, "Oh, Yuu doesn't live in the whole thing. It's divided up into, like, three apartments. The entrance to his place is just over there."

The entrance to Kanda's place turned out to be a tall corrugated iron gate with a letter slot and a doorbell set to one side of it. Allen was about to ring the doorbell when Lavi grabbed his hand and said, "No man! Yuu won't let us in if we ring the doorbell."

"Then how do you propose we get in?" asked Allen skeptically. Lavi looked at the top of the gate, and then at Allen, and grinned. Guessing what the redhead was thinking, Allen immediately started shaking his hands in front of him and said, "No. No no no no! Not happening. Sorry, wrong number, I refuse."

"Why not? Come on, I'll just give you a little boost and you'll be up and over in no time and then you can let me in! It'll be easy!"

"Easy?! I'm sorry, but have you forgotten that this is the residence of Yuu flipping Kanda who happens to hate me?! I will be shot if I do this!"

"Guns are illegal here man, and Yuu doesn't wanna get arrested so he doesn't have one. He does have a sword though… might wanna watch out for that."

"A sword?! What the bloody hell?! Why does he have a _sword?!" _

"I don't know. He smuggled it over from Japan or something. But anyway, Yuu won't hear you because his apartment's upstairs. It's cool man!" he crouched down and made a step with his interlinked hands, "Come on! Let's do this!"

"Why do I have to do it?!"

"Cause I'm stronger and taller and you wouldn't be able to boost me. And also, I want a nice view."

"But I have so much left to live for. I don't want to die yet. And you're thinking illegally again."

"So do I," replied Lavi, still grinning. He then put on an adorable little puppy dog face and blinked his eye, begging, "Please? Do it for me? I want to have that nice view so I can die happy if Yuu catches us."

Allen stared at him for a moment and bit his lip, thinking, _Resist Allen. Resist! _He then sighed and said, "Fine. But you are paying for my doctor's bill if I get stabbed."

He walked over and placed one foot in Lavi's hand and then pushed himself up and managed to grab onto the top of the gate, thinking, _Our Father who art in Heaven, please-_

"Here we go!" said Lavi happily, before boosting him up so that the white haired boy overbalanced and toppled over the gate. He managed to land in a crouch, breathing heavily. He remained still and silent for a moment, half expecting an enraged Yuu Kanda to come hurtling around the corner, sword in hand but nothing happened. He sighed in relief and Lavi called to him, "Hey Brit! You still alive!"

"Yes," grumbled Allen, unlocking the gate and letting the redhead in, "Thanks for the warning."

"Hey man, you haven't been chopped into pieces, have you?" said Lavi with a shrug as they closed the gate and continued on up the brick garden path. At the end of the path they broke out into an enormous, neglected, tangled garden. It was like looking at a very dense patch of jungle. A rusty table and chairs stood nearby and a string of coloured lights was strung in between and large creeper covered tree and a balcony that was placed a storey above them.

"I think Yuu lives up there," said Lavi, pointing to the balcony, which, Allen now noticed, had a screen door propped open at the top of it. And if he wasn't mistaken, guitar music was wafting out through the open doorway. He looked down and saw that the only way to get up to the balcony was via an incredibly narrow, incredibly rusty, vine covered, not-very-safe looking spiral staircase. Lavi gestured for him to follow, and both of them nervously started climbing.

Allen could see the headlines now: Two Teenage Boys Killed In Tragic Accident When Completely Unsafe Rusty Staircase Collapses. Friend They Were Breaking In To See Remains Unmoved, Saying "Fuckwits Broke My Staircase."

When Lavi reached the top, he stopped suddenly and stared. He then scuttled over to one side and beckoned for Allen to join him at the top. Allen did and when he saw what Lavi was staring at he couldn't help but stare to.

Kanda was sitting on a couch in front of the door, and in his hands he held a black guitar, which he was playing perfectly. With his _eyes closed. _Allen jaw dropped open and he mumbled to Lavi, "Holy crap. I thought that was a CD."

"I know right?" Lavi mumbled back, as shocked as Allen was. Suddenly Kanda's grey eyes snapped open and he stopped playing, bolting to his feet, shouting, "FUCK! WHAT THE HELL?!"

Allen and Lavi stood up, Allen getting ready to run if need be, and Lavi said cheerfully, "Hey Yuu! I didn't know you could play the guitar. You're really good!"

"WHAT THE FUCK," shouted Kanda, "ARE YOU DOING IN MY APARTMENT?! JESUS FUCKING CHRIST! FUCK! WHY ARE YOU HERE?! I HAVEN'T TOLD YOU MY ADDRESS BECAUSE I WANT TO GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM YOU SOMETIMES! FUCK!"

"Calm down Yuu," said Lavi mildly. Allen decided that it was best for him to remain silent at the moment. Kanda, still raging, yelled, "HOW THE FUCK DID YOU GET MY ADDRESS?!"

"Tiedoll," Lavi replied simply. Kanda stared at him for a moment before saying ominously, "That's it. I'm going to kill him. I'm going to fucking kill him," his eyes then snapped back up to Allen and Lavi and he growled, "But first…"

"Oh shit," said Lavi before turning to Allen and saying frantically, "Time to bail. Abort the mission Brit! Abort, abort!"


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

**23****rd**** April 2014 **

Lenalee didn't have many female friends. The reason for this was that she found it easy to make friends with guys, and even though she never planned it that way, most of the time they turned out to be hot guys. So even though she didn't want to be, she was often the subject of a lot of girls' animosity. She made friends with older women, like her teachers, just find but currently the only teenage female friend she had attending the school she went to was Fou, Kanda's agro neighbour.

She most of the time though, she didn't mind not having female friends because she was so close with her guy friends. Looking back though, she realised that she had pretty much guaranteed her hardships in friend making in about the third week of year seven when she had befriended a one Yuu Kanda. The angry, sexy Japanese student.

God, female jealousy was a bitch sometimes. Literally.

She didn't regret befriending Kanda. Despite his prickly outside he was actually an incredibly loyal friend once you got close to him. It wasn't until the end of year nine that Lenalee realised that she might have wanted to be closer than friends with Kanda. Except she didn't want to make their friendship awkward so she kept her feelings a secret.

She loved most things about Kanda. His looks, his rarely seen soft side, his protectiveness… the violence, not so much. Which was why she was currently leaning up against the lockers near his with her arms folded, giving him an unimpressed look as he found the books he needed for first period. Without glancing at her he said in typical Kanda fashion, "What?"

"Mind telling me why Allen's got a black eye and Lavi has a lump the size of an egg on his head?" she asked, straightening up. He shut and locked his locker and then proceeded to walk down the corridor, saying, "They broke into my apartment and got what they had coming to them. So what?"

She sighed. Of course the beating had been a result of one of Lavi's stupid plans, and of course he had just _had _to have dragged Allen into it as well. She scolded, "Kanda, didn't you think that the teachers were going to notice when the two of them come in on the first day looking like they've just come out of a street fight? They're going to immediately guess it was you, even if Allen and Lavi don't tell them outright."

"So? I've dealt with that sort of problem before," replied Kanda with a shrug. A hint of concern entered Lenalee's voice as she said, "You do know that the only reason you haven't been expelled yet is because you're a high achiever, right? And even then, you're toeing the line Kanda. They could throw you out!"

"So?" said Kanda nonchalantly, "I'll just find another school."

Lenalee stopped suddenly and then punched him on the arm, not lightly either. He turned to her in surprise as she snapped, "Jerk! Why- Just… Urgh! I give up!"

And she spun on her heel and strode away, leaving Kanda staring after her in confusion.

* * *

"Walker," said Allen's English teacher, Miss Nyne, as the bell rang for lunch, "A word, please."

Allen approached his teacher's desk nervously, wondering what he had done wrong whilst the other students filed out of the classroom. The teacher waited until all the other students were gone before asking, "Did Yuu Kanda blacken your eye Walker?"

Allen hesitated for a moment before replying, "To be fair to the pri- I mean, to Kanda, I did break into his house."

"With Lavi Bookmen, correct?" sighed Miss Nyne. Allen nodded and Miss Nyne shook her head and said, "You have a very strange taste in friends."

"Kanda's not really my friend," explained Allen, "We're more… acquainted with each other, I suppose."

"Your friends Walker, don't even try to deny it," said Miss Nyne immediately, "You might not admit it yourselves but hey, if you're ever in need of a body guard, at least you're covered," she then gave him a serious look and said, "I saw on your records that your guardian is Cross Marian."

_Oh no, _thought Allen despairingly. Whenever a woman knew Cross she was either pining over him or wanting to hunt him down so she can preform unspeakable acts of violence on him. And usually it was Allen who received the full force of their angry ranting because Cross always seemed to be oh-so-conveniently absent whenever he was tracked down. Allen had had to deal with screaming, tears, begging, people latching onto his ankles, threats of violence and other such things. Once he had almost been choked by a golden necklace. Another time he had had to escape from the hotel room they were staying in in New York City via the fire escape to avoid the wrath of a particularly incensed woman who had pulled out a gun. She had actually started _shooting _at him. He got incredibly lost and was found many hours later in the Red Light District, trying to hunt down his elusive godfather. That had been a fun one to explain to the NYC Police.

However, Miss Nyne only looked at him sympathetically and said, "I feel sorry for you Walker. He must be a handful to deal with."

Allen smiled awkwardly and replied, "Well, he is. So you… know him?"

Miss Nyne nodded and said with a faint laugh, "We went to university together. I remember him being a lazy, irresponsible, sweet-talking, womanizing slob. Has he changed?"

Allen paused before shaking his head. Miss Nyne gave him that same sympathetic look and said, "He's abandoned you, hasn't he?"

Allen stiffened and thought desperately, _Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no. She's a bloody psychic. She can read my mind with her evil mind-reading abilities. Oh god this is so bad!_

She chuckled when she saw his fearful expression and said, "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. Just needed to make sure that he was still his old self."

Allen was about to reply when the door to the classroom suddenly burst open and Lavi came hurtling into the room. When he caught sight of Allen he cried, "Oh thank god Allen! I was so worried when you weren't-" he then caught sight of Miss Nyne and an expression of horror came over his face as he exclaimed, "Brit how could you?! You're cheating on me with a _teacher?!" _

Allen flushed bright red and said angrily, "What the bloody hell Lavi?! Of course not! Oh my god," he turned to the teacher and said embarrassedly, "I am so sorry for my friend's idiocy."

Miss Nyne smiled languidly and replied, "It's not your fault Walker," she then focussed her attention on Lavi and said, "Bookmen, if you get out of here before the next thing I'm about to say comes out of my mouth you can get off scot free."

Lavi frowned confusedly and started, "What-?"

"After school detention today," said Miss Nyne, her voice dripping with sugary poison, "See you then."

Lavi's shoulders sagged.

* * *

Lenalee leaned up against the wall of the art corridor, not quite sure why she was there. All she knew was that she didn't really want to talk to Kanda right now because of her embarrassing display earlier. God, she must've seemed childish to him.

"Lenalee?" said a voice to her right and she turned to see Anita standing a couple of metres away, a cup of coffee in her hand, "What're you doing here? Shouldn't you be out having lunch?"

"I've already eaten," replied Lenalee hurriedly, pushing herself off the wall, "I'll leave. Sorry for disturbing you."

"You don't need to go," said Anita with a smile, "This corridor is open for students at lunch. But…" she gave the Chinese girl a measured look and said, "You look troubled. Problems?"

Lenalee sighed and said suddenly, "Guys are stupid."

Anita blinked once before laughing and saying, "Of course. Yes, they most certainly are. I'm guessing you've had a fight with one of those boys that you hang out with."

"Sort of," replied Lenalee, "One of them was being a bit jerkier than usual and then he said some stupid stuff and I snapped at him but… now I feel stupid myself."

"Ah," said Anita understandingly, "You're talking about Yuu Kanda. But you've been friends with him for ages, haven't you Lenalee? I thought you knew that his Picking-Up-Other-Peoples'-Emotions sensors are practically dead."

Lenalee nodded then grumbled, "He has the empathy of a rock."

Anita smiled, remembering her own guy issues when she was sixteen and said, "You should try listening to some music. I find that always helps," she looked thoughtful for a moment before continuing, "You should try listening to some of 'Thirds'' music."

"Thirds?" said Lenalee curiously. Anita nodded and replied, "Yeah. They're a new band from Japan and they're getting pretty popular over here. They're quite good."

"From Japan?" said Lenalee, her eyes sparking. Anita smiled amusedly. She had had a feeling that this girl liked Japanese things. Lenalee nodded and said, "I'll be sure to check them out. Thanks Anita!"

She moved to leave and Anita said quickly, "And don't let anything those idiots say let you down, okay?"

Lenalee gave her a thumbs up before running off, no doubt to try to get some of those stupid library computers to work for YouTube.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

**24****th**** April 2014 **

"Now it's raining," said Allen exasperatedly, glancing out the window that was at the end of the row of shelves in the library that they were sitting in, "This morning it was lovely, warm and sunny and now it's miserable and raining. What is _wrong _with the weather in this country?"

Lavi chuckled quietly and said, "Well done Brit. The first sign of becoming a true Melbournian is when you start to talk about the weather a lot. You're on the way to becoming truly initiated!"

"God forbid," muttered Allen. He glanced at Kanda who was sitting a few feet away and hadn't spoken to them all morning. The white haired boy sighed and snapped, "You know, I don't see why you're still this angry. In all honesty we should be the ones who are angry at _you." _

Kanda turned to glare at him and snapped, "You broke into my fucking _house. _I like my fucking privacy to stay private."

"Oh yes? Then call this payback for the time you helped Lavi break in to _my _house."

"You didn't have anything to fucking _hide. _I did."

"I didn't want anyone to find out that my godfather had abandoned me but life's not fair."

"Why is it such a big deal that you keep the fact that you're a musical genius a secret anyway?" asked Lavi, "It should be something you're proud of man, because you're fucking awesome at that shit. Like Japanese Jimmy Hendrix or something."

Kanda's glare turned to the redhead and he snapped, "Do not ever make that comparison again."

Lavi held up his hands and shook his head confusedly and opened his mouth to say something more but at that moment Lenalee appeared at the end of the aisle. She looked strangely pale and drawn and her expression was akin to someone's who had just seen a massacre. Allen glanced at Lavi who shrugged and then asked Lenalee, "Morning Lenalady. What's up? You don't look so great."

Lenalee was silent for a moment before glancing at Kanda and whispering, "Season 3. Episode 9."

"Oh," said Kanda, catching on immediately to something that Allen most certainly didn't understand. Lavi didn't seem to get it either, so he shot a questioning look at Kanda who said quietly, "Got."

This still made no sense to Allen but apparently it did to Lavi who said, "Oh. _Oh. _Oh shit, honey you need a hug."

He immediately got up and embraced Lenalee, who shakily returned the hug. Allen felt a little pang of jealousy but berated himself for it just afterwards, thinking, _No. No jealousy. It's a hug between friends. Nothing for you to be jealous of. Why would you be jealous of someone hugging Lavi anyway? You get hugged by Lavi all the time…_

He noticed that Kanda was looking similarly uncomfortable and felt a little relieved that he wasn't the only one being eaten by the jealousy bug. He glanced out the window quickly and rolled his eyes, snapping, "And now it's sunny again. Would the Weather Gods of Melbourne just make up their bloody minds please?!"

Kanda raised an eyebrow at him and asked, "What the fuck have you been smoking _moyashi?" _

* * *

Whatever was bothering Lenalee bothered her for pretty much the entire day. At lunchtime she was nowhere to be seen until she came down the stairs about halfway through the break and beckoned for the three of them to follow her. She lead them up to the computer lab where she had managed to load up a web proxy so they could watch YouTube clips. On the screen were four individuals, three boys and one girl, each with a different coloured dyed hair, lots of black jewellery, and lots of gothic clothing. They looked like they were Asian. They seemed to be in a band, seeing that each of them were holding an instrument.

"Fuck," muttered Kanda when he saw the screen. Allen noticed that his scowl had deepened considerably. The Japanese boy then turned on his heel and started leaving. Lenalee called after him, "Hey! Where're you going?"

"Anywhere but here," Kanda snapped back before disappearing out the door. The three remaining shared a confused glance before turning back to the screen.

"So. This is-" Lenalee started explaining but Allen interrupted sarcastically, "A tutorial on how to look like an emo-goth?"

"No. It's-"

"A tutorial on how to look like an emo-goth vampire?"chipped in Lavi. Lenalee sighed exasperatedly and held out one of the bud headphones that were plugged into the computer to each of them, saying, "Just listen."

With a dubious glance at each other, Allen and Lavi took the headphones and Lenalee pressed play.

Three minutes and ten seconds later, they were both staring at the screen with their mouths hanging open. Lenalee grinned at their reactions and said, "I know right?"

"Holy shit," muttered Lavi, running his hands through his hair, "That was… how the fuck didn't I know of the existence of these people? Fuck. They're fuckin' _A! _What the fuck! What do you mean?! Wow! Jesus!"

"That was…" Allen struggled to find an appropriate sentence and gave up, "That was bloody brilliant. Wow. Colour me impressed."

"What?" said Lenalee and Lavi simultaneously. Allen waved a dismissing hand at them and continued, "What is this band called?"

"Yeah Lenalady, I need a name! I'm pirating tonight!" said Lavi happily. Lenalee shook her head and replied, "They're called 'Thirds', but Lavi you should really _buy _their music. Support the industry."

"I would but I don't have any money," said Lavi with a pout, "Gramps is a real tight-ass," he then looked thoughtful and said, "Hey… it's a long weekend this weekend, isn't it?"

"Yes," replied Allen, "We get tomorrow off on top of Saturday and Sunday. Why is that by the way?"

"ANZAC Day," replied Lenalee. Lavi nodded and continued, "We should go see a movie on the weekend! Okay, we're all meeting up on Saturday! Fuckin' A! I'm gonna go tell Yuu."

"Hold on," said Allen with a frown, "Don't we get a say in this?"

"Nope," said Lavi cheerfully as he ran out the door, "See y'all!"

* * *

**26****th**** April 2014 **

"How the fuck did I get convinced to do this?" grumbled Kanda as they waited for Lavi to return with the tickets for the film, "Why the fuck am I here?"

"The thing I'm more concerned about is why did we let _Lavi _buy the tickets?" said Allen with a sigh. Lenalee smiled sheepishly and replied, "Yeah, that probably wasn't the best idea on our parts."

"Okay!" called Lavi as he bounded up to them, his arms full of snacks, the tickets tucked into the front pocket of his patchwork jeans, "I got the tickets. Cinema 4, let's go!"

"What are we seeing?" asked Lenalee. Lavi looked thoughtful before replying, "I've forgotten its name but it's by those SyFy people."

A minute of silence met this statement before Lenalee said, "Syfy?"

"Yep," replied Lavi with a nod.

"You mean those people that release all of those animal-esque movies?" said Allen.

"Yep."

"That are each just a complete pile of fucking shit?" said Kanda.

"Yep."

There was another minute of silence. Then Kanda half yelled, "Why the fuck did you waste our money on that shit?!"

"Because it'll be funny!" said Lavi with a laugh, "Come on! It's gonna start soon!"

"Why did this one even get a cinema release?" moaned Allen. The other two just shook their heads mutely and followed the excited American.

* * *

An hour and thirty minutes later, the four of them trooped out of the cinema, all looking a little rattled. They stood out in the street for a moment, staring at nothing before Lavi said weakly, "That was… wow."

"There are no words in the English language to describe how bad that was," said Allen, still shocked by what he had just seen, "Prick? Any words in Japanese for us?"

Kanda shook his head mutely, too amazed by what he had just seen to come up with a retort. Lenalee, looking similarly dumbfounded, then said quietly, "I think… I think we should go for lunch."

The other three nodded and Allen said, still staring blankly at nothing, "Chinese food. Lots and lots of Chinese food. That's the only way to fix this."

"There is _no _way to fix this," said Kanda despairingly, but followed along with the others who were following Lenalee who seemed to know where she was going. They walked in single file like a string of chronically depressed ducklings, until they reached a Chinese restaurant called China Red a little ways down the street. Lenalee turned to them all and sighed, "Well, this is it. It's cheap and really good so…"

Without another word they filed into the restaurant. They were shown to a table and it was then that Allen and Lavi snapped out of their horrified stupor. Allen squinted at what was set into the wall above the table and his eyes then widened s he exclaimed, "Hold on! Do you order _via screen _here?"

"Yeah," replied Lenalee, seating herself down next to Kanda, "You just tap what you want and they have it out to you in about fifteen minutes. It's really cool."

"That's… that's brilliant!" said Allen, his mood brightening considerably. The other occupants of the table were less cheered.

"That was actually way worse than I thought it was going to be," groaned Lavi, "Fuck. I knew the CGI would be fucking horrible but it was also _boring." _

"What did you fucking expect?" growled Kanda, "The reason the Syfy movies are fucking famous in the first place is because they're fucking horrible."

"Like the Rebecca Black of the movie world," said Lavi, rubbing his face with his hands.

"Except ten times worse," said Lenalee. Kanda nodded assent and said, "Yeah, next time you decide to waste our fucking money rabbit, make sure it's one something worth our fucking- Holy shit! _Moyashi, _what the fuck are you doing?!"

Lenalee and Lavi turned to where Kanda was staring. Allen, who had taken control of the ordering, turned to Kanda, frowning and snapped, "My name's Allen, prick!" just as he placed an order for twenty serves of pork dumplings.

"Oh shit," said Lavi, paling considerably, "Who let the Brit near the ordering screen?"

"Allen," said Lenalee nervously, "How much have you ordered already?"

Allen brought up the bill on the screen and the three teens eyes widened in horror. Allen shrugged and replied, "Seeing what we all just went through, I thought a little Chinese food binge eating was in order."

"Your not wrong, but…" started Lavi but Kanda interrupted, "Fucking hell, _moyashi! _I think this may be a new fucking concept to you, but food from a restaurant costs money. And money is something all of us are pretty fucking short of."

"Oh well," said Allen nonchalantly, "We'll just have to pool our resources."

He ducked as a pair of chopsticks went sailing past his head.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

**5****th**** May 2014**

"Did you get it too?" asked Lenalee as she approached Allen, who was pulling textbooks out of his locker. He turned to her and sighed, "If you mean the constant barrage of texts and phone calls that I got relating to Star Wars all throughout yesterday, yes. Yes I did."

"I had to stop replying eventually," Lenalee said grimly, leaning up against the lockers, "I would've used up all of my credit."

"That's a good point actually," said Allen, turning and locking his locker, "How did he have enough credit to send that many text messages and ring that many time, not only me but you as well?"

"He was doing it to Kanda as well," she giggled slightly, "Apparently he blew a gasket screamed a few obscenities down the phone and then turned it off for the rest of the day."

"That certainly sounds like a Kanda thing to do…" sighed Allen as they walked along the corridor. Lenalee grinned at him and then said excitedly, "Guess what?"

"What?"

"'Thirds' is coming to Australia on tour."

Allen's what snapped around to face her at that. Ever since he had found out about the band, he had been slightly fanboying over them, "When?"

"January," replied Lenalee happily. Her face then fell slightly and said, "The only problem is that they're only preforming in Sydney."

"What?" said Allen, frowning, "Why?"

"I don't know. Probably because Sydney is hip right now or something. Now this is a problem."

"Yes, it is," said Allen sadly, "Because there is no way in heaven or earth that I can afford an airfare to Sydney right now. I don't plan to sell my soul to the devil so…"

"None of us can afford airfares," said Lenalee, waving a dismissive hand at him, "However, I have another plan."

"Okay…"

"It only takes a day and a half to drive to Sydney from Melbourne…" she started but Allen interrupted incredulously, "_A day and a half?!"_

"Hey, you're not in the UK anymore. It takes a long time to get anywhere by car here. But anyway, there are a lot of cheap motels along the way that we can stay in over night. Simple!"

"One problem. None of us have a license or a car."

"That won't be true after August. Lavi turns eighteen then and is getting his P plates. And Kanda can already drive and pass as an eighteen year old, and if anyone does pull us over Kanda will just knock them out and then pedal to the metal!"

"That's… a very Lavi-esque thing to say."

"Plus Tiedoll will lend Kanda his car to get in favour with him."

"And what about purchasing tickets?"

"You got a spare seventy dollars?"

"Yes."

"Then we're golden!"

Once Lavi had been briefed on the entirety of the plan they then moved on to the trickiest stage: getting Kanda to agree. And seeing that he wasn't exactly happy with either Allen or Lavi at the moment, (he never was happy with them but he was particularly pissed off after the whole movie debacle), it was going to be even harder than it usually was. So it wasn't exactly a big shock when they briefed him on the plan and the first thing out of his mouth was, "Are you guys fucking retarded? There's no way in hell I'm doing that."

"Aw, come on Kanda!" whined Lenalee, "It'll be fun! And it's only for a couple of days!"

"Twenty-four hours in a car with fucking ADHD rabbit and the fucking _moyashi? _Yeah sounds like a fucking fabulous time," said Kanda, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "I really don't see why we don't do it more often."

"Oh, stop being such a grump!" huffed Lenalee, leaning up against the bookshelf she was standing next to. They were standing in the library, trying to keep the volume of their conversation down, (well, Lenalee and Allen were trying), so that Miranda, who was standing a few feet away stacking shelves again, didn't have a mental breakdown. Lenalee shot a despairing look at the two other boys. Lavi looked similarly disappointed but Allen merely sighed and said, "That's alright Kanda. We already kind of knew you wouldn't say yes."

Lavi and Lenalee shot him incredulous looks as Kanda narrowed his eyes suspiciously at him and Allen continued, "It's fine. We knew that it would be too hard for you to try and face Tiedoll so…"

"What do you mean _moyashi?" _snapped Kanda, still eyeing the white haired boy suspiciously. Allen shrugged and replied, "Well, you're obviously scared of him…"

"I'm what?" snapped Kanda, looking mildly murderous. Allen nodded and repeated, "Scared of him. I mean, seeing that you running away from him and avoiding him you must be quite terrified of him."

The other two flinched as Kanda stormed forward and grabbed Allen by the collar of his shirt with one hand, half hoisting him up off the ground so only the tips of his toes were touching the ground. The Japanese boy then growled threateningly, "Care to repeat that, _moyashi?" _

"I'm just saying Kanda," Allen said calmly, holding up his hands, "His is a _very scary _old man so it's no wonder you're so terrified of him."

"Fuck you _moyashi!" _snarled Kanda, pushing Allen away from him, "I'm not scared of that fucking annoying old geezer! I'll get the fucking car for you! Jesus fucking Christ…" and with that he stormed away, muttering something under his breath about how he was going to run the car into every pole they came across and then use it to squash the _moyashi's _head.

Lavi and Lenalee stared after him for a moment before slowly turning back to Allen and saying in unison, "What was that?"

Allen smiled devilishly at them and replied, "Never underestimate the power of masculine pride."

Seeing that he had run out of food at home, Allen had decided to liberate some money from his godfather's coin jar and went to buy his lunch from the school canteen. When he told Lavi and Kanda what he was doing (Lenalee had gone to speak to a teacher) he didn't exactly get the reaction he was expecting. Both of them looked shocked and then Lavi reached forward, took his hands and gripped them tightly, giving him a sympathetic and encouraging look. Kanda didn't even snap a rude retort. He just stood there, giving him a blank look. Then they had both turned and headed for their usual place without saying anything, leaving a very confused Allen in their wake.

Allen hadn't understood their reactions until he reached the canteen and saw the heaving, writhing mass of confusion that was the line to the windows. He stood there staring at it in horror for a moment before taking a deep breath and wading into the mass.

_Dear god, _he thought as he was pushed around by the throng of teenagers, _Can't they organise a line even a little better than this. Isn't Link suppose to be the vice principal of this school?! How can his control freakiness even allow something like this to exist in this school? Wait- no you don't you stupid little year seven shrimp. Just because you're adorable doesn't mean I'm going to allow you in front of me… Ow! Ow that was the general vicinity of my lungs! Ouch, that really hurts. Oh for god's sake, who brings a bloody great __**backpack **__into the line?! What an imbecile! Oh great, now this child has dropped his money and- what. The. Hell. That is __**not **__an area of my anatomy that I want your face anywhere near, than you very much!_

Finally he was pushed to the front of the mass and managed to shout a very brief order to the woman standing behind the counter. Once he had received his morsel of nourishment he proceeded to battle his way back out and broke out into fresh air. He stumbled his way out of the canteen and around to the alcove under the stairs where Kanda and Lavi were eating their lunches. When Lavi saw him, a big smile broke out over his face as he exclaimed, "My sweet baby cakes! You're alive!"

"Please don't call me that," moaned Allen as he slumped down next to the redhead, who said sympathetically, "Hard time in the line?"

"You have no idea," muttered Allen, "Look how small my portion is. It's ridiculous!"

"Actually, that's the size of a meal that a fucking regular human being would have," said Kanda in a bored fashion. Allen glared at him and snapped, "I really don't need any comment from you right now."

"Well too fucking bad for you, because I'm going to comment when I feel like fucking commenting."

"Why don't you go jump off a cliff?"

"Why don't you go play in traffic?"

"Prick."

"_Moyashi." _

"Time out!" exclaimed Lavi, making an 'x' symbol with his arms. He then glanced at the stairs and said, "Hey! Here comes Lenalady!"

Lenalee was indeed making her way down the stairs. She walked around and flopped down next to Kanda, and thoughtful expression on her face.

"What's up Lenalady?" said Lavi happily, "What did the teacher say?"

Lenalee didn't answer for a while. Then she looked up and asked, "Guys… am I cute?"

Kanda and Allen choked on their food and Lavi looked bemused as he asked, "Where's this coming from?"

"I was just curious…" replied Lenalee, clasping her chin, "Because, you know, no guy has ever really taken interest in me that way before…"

"Lenalee, I believe that is on account of your brother," said Allen reasonably, recovering from almost choking. Lenalee nodded then stood up, cleared the distance between her and Lavi and kissed the redhead full on the mouth.

Allen's brain just about near exploded with a million thoughts at once as his jaw dropped open and a flush spread across his cheeks. _No! Mine mine mine mine mine mine! Wait, why am I thinking this?! But she shouldn't be kissing him like that! But it's just Lenalee! She's just experimenting! This can't be a real thing! It can't be it can't be! I will not allow it to be real! Allen says no!_

Kanda, sitting across from him, was having a similar reaction. His face had transformed from his usual expressions of Angry Scowl and Really Angry Scowl and Smug Smirk to an expression that could only be described as: Oh My Fucking God No This Can't Be Happening.

Meanwhile, Lenalee broke away from Lavi, who stared at her for a moment before starting to hack and splutter. Lenalee looked disappointed and said, "That bad huh?"

"No," spluttered Lavi, "No I'm just- I- blegh – I'm allergic to femaleness right now. I'm in maleness mode. Ugh, grossness…"

"Oh. Okay then. Sorry," said Lenalee, before turning around and kissing Kanda in much the same fashion. Allen then witnessed for the first time in his life, a Japanese person's brain ceasing to function at a normal rate. Kanda's eyes went very wide and he sort of just… froze. Lenalee broke away, blushing slightly and asked, "You're not allergic to femaleness too, are you?"

Kanda didn't reply. He was still in Brain-Ceasing-To-Function mode. Lenalee stared at him curiously for a while and Allen started snickering.

"Urgh, purge! Purging needed!" came Lavi's voice from next to Allen, and the next thing he knew the redhead's lips were pressed against his and the same redhead's tongue was forcing it's way into his mouth. Allen's brain froze.

Lavi broke away and grinned at the Brit, who just stared back at him without seeing. There was a slight squeal from across from them and Lenalee said excitedly, "Oh my god I ship you two together! Shipping! You two can be… Laven! Laven forever! My OTP of the real world!"

"Glad you think so too," said Lavi with a nod of approval. He then turned back to Allen and pointed at Lenalee saying, "See? I've got legit support here! We're meant to be, baby!"

Allen didn't respond. He seemed to be stuck on Stare-At-Nothing mode. Lavi waved a hand in front of his face and asked, "Hey Brit! You alive?"

Lenalee seemed to be trying to get a response out of Kanda, except she was just poking him on the nose. After having no luck she backed off with a frown and said concernedly, "I think I broke Kanda."

"The Brit's having technical difficulties too," said Lavi, then tried to go with Lenalee's approach of physical contact and poked Allen on the nose too. The white haired boy fell backwards.

* * *

**A/N: Hey everyone, thanks for so many reviews and favs and follows. You guys are the best! I'm just going to let you guys know that it's very probable that from now on these updates will be anywhere between a couple of days and a week apart because I'm really busy at the moment. So if updates are a bit delayed, don't freak out! I'm going to finish this story, but chapters might just be delayed because I haven't had time to write them. Thank you for your continued support and see you next time! **


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

**12****th**** May 2014**

****"I know your weakness now!" cackled Lavi, "I still can't get over that! Now I can blackmail you!"

Kanda glared at him and snapped, "If you try to kiss me I will kill you slowly. Do you understand? Slow. And painful. Death. To. Rabbit."

Lavi held up his hands and laughed, "Alright, alright, you win!"

At that moment, Lenalee came around the corner from where the year ten lockers were. She smiled and waved at them when she saw them, just as Allen came up the stairs. When they saw each other they grinned, held out their arms to each other and started singing in an over dramatic way, "_Riiiise like a phoenix! Out of the ashes seeking raaaaather than vengeance! Retribution you were waaaaarned! Once I'm transfooooorrmed! Once I'm reboooorn! You know I will riiiiise like a phoenix! Cause you're my flaaaame!"_

Kanda and Lavi shared a glance as the two younger students collapsed into a fit of laughing and shouted, "Go Austria!"

"Care to explain?" growled Kanda to the redhead. Lavi shook his head and said, "You know, I actually have no idea what's wrong with them. I feel neglected."

Allen and Lenalee stopped their giggling to stare at the other two incredulously. Allen blinked a couple of times before saying, "You don't know that song?"

When the two of them shook their heads, Allen looked horrified and Lenalee said grumpily, "Don't bother Allen. They don't watch Eurovision."

"Oh fuck, are you still watching that?" groaned Kanda. Lenalee then huffed, "And Kanda hates it. Because he is _boring."_

"I'm not boring I just hate shit music," snapped Kanda. Allen sighed and replied, "You obviously do not understand the concept of Eurovision. Shun the non-believer."

"Shuuuuun," said Lenalee driftily.

"Shuuuuuuunnnnn!"

Kanda and Lavi shared another glance and Lavi muttered to the Japanese boy, "And you thought _I _was weird."

"By the way guys," said Lenalee suddenly, "Study meeting. Tomorrow, after school, Allen's place. Be there, because I'm slightly freaking out about these exams."

"We're using the front door Lavi," said Allen pointedly, before the two of them spun off down the stairs towards the library singing, "_You don't know, you don't know, is it love, is it hate, what are we changiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!"_

* * *

**13****th**** May 2014**

"But using the balcony is so much more fun!" protested Lavi as they entered Allen's apartment. There was some barking as Timcampy came running around the corner (Kanda eyed the dog warily) and Lavi immediately set about once again molesting his ears. Allen ignored Lavi's previous comment and gestured for the rest of them to set up base camp on the coffee table.

Upon seeing the piano that took up most of the lounge room, Lenalee was prompted to ask, "How are those music lessons coming along by the way?"

Allen shuddered and said as he slumped down onto the couch, "I swear that guy is getting creepier. I don't know what I did to him but he really doesn't seem to like me."

"Maybe existing is what you did to him," grumbled Kanda, sitting at the opposite end of the couch and pulling out a science text book. The other three followed suit and Lenalee huffed, "Okay, I'm seriously starting to freak out about these exams. I don't think I've studied enough…"

"Chillax Lenalady," said Lavi with a laugh, "They're only your year ten exams. They don't count for anything."

"But I still want to do well," said Lenalee, skimming through her copy of To Kill A Mockingbird and opening up her exercise book. Lavi shook his head and replied, "You don't have to get worked up about them though. Look at them as a practise run."

"But still…" muttered Lenalee. Allen suddenly remembered something and said, "Oh yes, a point to make about the upcoming impromptu trip to Sydney…"

"Fuck, say that again!" said Lavi happily, "Your accent just made that sentence vanilla cake, I'm not even joking!"

"… Right. But I was thinking, for the concert we need to make our way from our crappy hotel that we've rented-"

"Hey, when you get enough money to pay for something better, be sure to let us know," snapped Kanda, "But until then, stop fucking complaining."

"- to the stadium," continued Allen, ignoring the older boy, "I did some research and seeing that parking is going to be an absolute nightmare, I think the best way to get there would be via train."

"Oh yeah!" exclaimed Lavi, "I keep forgetting that Sydney has a train system that actually fucking works!"

"How much are tickets?" asked Lenalee. Allen was about to reply when Kanda snapped, "We're not taking the train."

The other three turned to him in surprise and Allen frowned and said, irritated, "Is this because _I _happened to come up with this plan?"

"No. It's just-" he sighed and said, "No trains. I'll fucking walk if you guys want to take one."

Lenalee and Lavi gave each other a confused glance while Allen deadpanned, "Go ahead. Get mugged. See if any of us care."

Lavi sighed and muttered, "I pity the dude who tries to mug Yuu."

Kanda glared at him and said threateningly, "Don't fucking call me that."

Lavi gestured at him and sighed, "See what I mean?"

* * *

**15****th**** May 2014**

"Anita is going to kill us all," groaned Allen as they walked down to the park. The weather had finally calmed down, and seeing that it was nice out and they were allowed to use the park at lunchtimes, the four of them were heading down there now. Lenalee nodded in agreement and said, "I didn't actually realise how much hard work was going to have to be put into this subject."

"I could've told you that," said Kanda as they crossed the road. Allen huffed and snapped, "She's a scorpion woman."

"Oh come on Allen, she may be a little tough but she is nice," said Lenalee as they sat down on the grass in a patch of sunlight. Lavi grinned and threw his arms around Allen's shoulders saying, "Aw. Is my poor little Brit having trouble with school? Poor baby."

"Personal space whilst eating and at all other times," said Allen nonchalantly as he wriggled free of the American's grip and started to focus on his lunch. About three minutes later, Lavi said amazedly, "There was a shit tonne of food in that bag, like, two seconds ago. How did you eat it all that quickly?!"

"My magical abilities of-" Allen started but stopped when his attention was suddenly grabbed by a flurry of movement behind his three companions. He blinked a couple of times. If he had not been mistaken, he was pretty sure someone had just run over and ducked behind a nearby tree.

"Your magical abilities of what? Don't leave me hanging honey!" exclaimed Lavi. Allen turned back to the conversation, thinking he'd imagined it and started again, "My magical abilities of-"

There it was again. And this time it looked like whoever it was had paused quickly before ducking behind another tree. Allen narrowed his eyes. He hoped that this was just more Australian weirdness and not something else.

"For fuck's sake _moyashi, _what are you looking at?" snapped Kanda, turning to look over his shoulder. Lenalee and Lavi turned too, but the mysterious Whoever The Bloody Hell That Was seemed to have stopped moving for the time being.

"It's nothing," said Allen as they turned back to him, "What were we talking about again?"

There was a collective groan from the rest of the group and Kanda started to say something that was no doubt offensive when- There it was again. This was getting ridiculous. Whoever The Bloody Hell That Was had ducked out from behind his hiding place and then run and hidden behind the toilet block that was nearby.

"If you'll excuse me, I'll be back in a tick," said Allen, getting up and jogging over towards the toilet block, trying to ignore the feeling of having three very confused gazes watching him. Once he got close to the block, he crept around the side opposite to the one that Whoever The Bloody Hell That Was had disappeared around. When he peered around the corner he saw that there was a blonde, twenty-something year old man crouching down behind the block with an iPhone in his hand, his back to Allen. And, judging by the fact that he had his phone's camera up on the screen, the white haired boy guessed that the activity he was partaking in at the moment was less than legal.

Allen cleared his throat loudly and the man shrieked and stood bolt upright and spun around, wide-eyed, to face him. Allen smiled at him and said in a cheerful manner, "Good day sir. I'm sorry but I couldn't help but notice your… odd behaviour before so I just came over to see if you were alright and to make sure you weren't doing anything too… stalkerish."

The man stared at him for a moment before breaking into a run and shooting past him, screaming, "YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!"

Allen sighed. Well, that just about confirmed that stalker-like activities were taking place. He tore after the strange man and closed the gap in a couple of seconds. Once he was close enough, he leapt forward and seized the man around the chest and sent him slamming into the ground. He then quickly seized the man around the neck in a headlock and said, "Now, come over here, and you and I are going to have a little talk, alright?"

The man whimpered pathetically.

* * *

"That was weird," said Lenalee with a frown as Allen disappeared behind the toilet block, "Maybe he saw the flying mint bunny or something."

"The what?" said Lavi, turning to her with a strange look on his face. Lenalee waved a dismissive hand just as someone let out a loud, high-pitched shriek. Their attention snapped back to whatever was happening behind the toilet block.

"The fuck? Is he murdering someone?" said Kanda, furrowing his brow. Lenalee was about to reply that that was doubtful when someone shouted, "YOU'LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE!" and a man jumped out from behind the toilet block and started running away. Moments later Allen came tearing out after him.

"Shit!" exclaimed Lavi, "Allen's a British Albino Cheetah!"

They watched as Allen suddenly launched himself at the running man and tackled him to the ground before seizing him in a headlock. Some words were said but the three of them were too far away to hear them, and then Allen dragged the man behind some bushes.

"Hey!" said Lavi, sounding alarmed, "Where are they going?! That's my man! Mine! Why is he going off with some random he just mugged?!"

"Calm down Lavi," said Lenalee weakly. Kanda rubbed his eyes a bit before saying incredulously, "The fuck just happened? Did the _moyashi _just tackle someone? I am really fucking confused right now."

"That makes two of us," replied Lenalee, "Should we go see what's happening?"

The other two were silent for a minute before Lavi said, "Nah. Sure Brit's got it covered. We'll step in if anything drastic happens."

"You mean _you _will step in if anything drastic happens," grumbled Kanda, before turning back to his soba.

* * *

"Okay," said Allen once they were out of sight of the other three, "Want to tell me why you're acting like a weird stalker? Because I've had enough of them in my life thank you very much."

"Alright, alright, I'll talk!" said the man, scrabbling at Allen's arm with his fingers, "Just let go of my neck! I'm choking!"

Allen did and the man turned to face him. He was only a little taller than the British boy, with shaggy blonde hair and grey eyes. At the moment, his expression was scrunched up into one of indignation. Allen plastered his usual smile onto his face and said, "So, mind telling me who you are?"

The man paused before saying sheepishly, "My name's Bak Chang. And I wasn't stalking you. I swear."

"Well that's good to know," said Allen with a pleasant smile, "But just to make sure, you wouldn't mind showing me the pictures you were just taking on your phone, would you?"

Bak immediately paled and started shaking his head very rapidly, babbling, "No! This has my private- private- stuff, on here! And I don't have to-"

Allen reached forward and plucked the phone out of the older man's grip and started flicking through the photos, ignoring his protests. As he stared at the fifty-two photos, he felt his facial expression shift into one of blankness. All of the photos were taken from various angles and the main focus of all of them was Lenalee. Allen turned to stare at Bak with an unimpressed expression, but his eyes widened when he saw that something very strange was happening to the man's face.

"Um," he said, raising a finger to point, "I think there's something wrong with your face."

A strange rash of hives seemed to be invading the skin of Bak's face. The blonde man raised a hand and when he felt them, he let out a little squeak and spun away from the British boy, spluttering, "No! Don't look at me! I break out in hives when I get anxious! Stop- Stop eye beaming me!"

"I'm not 'eye beaming' you," sighed Allen, "Now, about these photos…"

* * *

About ten minutes later, Allen returned looking a bit smug and a bit disturbed. The other three stared at him blankly for a couple of moments before Lavi asked, "Are we ever going to find out what that was about?"

"Nope," said Allen, and gave a quick glance towards Kanda and continued, "Not unless I want a man's blood on my hands."

* * *

**A/N: Yay! Another update! I now have no classes that I can write in so weekly updates are to be expected. I got to introduce Bak-chan-san! I'm so excited! Until next time!**


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

**2****nd**** June 2014 **

When the Middle School coordinator arrived in Allen's classroom just after the bell for class had rung and called Allen's name, the white haired boy immediately assumed the worst. He really hoped it just had something to do with schoolwork and had nothing to do with a certain red-haired, child abandoning godfather he knew… but seeing that Allen had been a faithful student and had passed every test and handed in every piece of homework on time, it was most likely that the school had discovered his current status of Unaccompanied Abandoned Minor.

_Hoo-rooh to those beautiful days of freedom, _thought Allen with a sinking heart as he was lead towards the Middle School office. When he and the coordinator arrived at the office, he saw that there was a girl standing outside the door. She was wearing a purple mid-riff t-shirt and white shorts, and on her feet she wore white converse all-stars. Allen felt a vague sense of relief when he saw that she was shorter than he was. He then stopped and thought with horror, _Dear god, Kanda's given me a complex._

He also thought that she looked vaguely familiar, though he couldn't quite place his finger on where he'd seen her before. Even though her hair was a memorable coral pink, a large majority of the student body at his school had dyed their hair vibrant and obscure colours so that they looked like a tribe of mutant skittle people, so he still didn't recognise her.

"You're both on duty for me today," snapped the coordinator impatiently, like it was their fault they didn't have ESP and could read her mind so she didn't have to talk, "You have to go around with the detention lists to all of the classes in periods three and four, deliver messages, collect students I, or the other coordinators, need to speak to and other such things. Oh, and you have to clean out the recycling. Here's a lift key," she threw a small plastic key at Allen and then continued, "So. Get to it. Recycling's down the depo."

With that she disappeared into her office and slammed the door shut in their faces. Allen glanced awkwardly at the girl standing with him who was staring off into space with her arms folded behind her head, a bored expression on her face. He cleared his throat and said, "Well, seeing that we'll be working together today, I suppose introductions are in order-"

"I know who you are moron," said the girl, swivelling her head to look at him, "You're Allen Walker, transfer student from London. You hang out with my neighbour."

"Your neighbour?"

"Yuu Kanda dipshit," snapped the girl, rolling her eyes like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Allen ignored the insults getting thrown at him and said mildly, "Oh, you live in Kanda's building. I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I don't know your name…"

"We're in the same year, you moron!" snapped the girl, lowering her hands until they rested on her hips. Despite being so petite, she emanated such an aggressive aura that she seemed six feet tall. Allen just sighed and said, "I've only been here a couple of months, so I apologise for not having memorised every single name of the hundred and fifty students in our year level."

The girl rolled her eyes and huffed, "My name's Fou. Now hurry up! I want to get this job over with."

With that she spun on her heel and started striding off towards the fire escape at the end of the hall. Allen had no choice but to follow after her.

The two of them climbed down the fire escape and onto the street below where they turned right and made their way to the entrance of the atrium. The entered the atrium and then turned left into the little alcove just outside the windows to the food tech room where the school's dumpsters were kept. Fou walked over to a large green wheelie bin and dragged it out of its resting place, turning it around and coming towards Allen with it.

"Move or I'll run you over," she snapped and Allen hastily jumped out of the way.

"So here's the deal," explained Fou, "I wheel this bin around the school and you have to go into all the open classrooms we pass and bring out those blue recycling tubs that are everywhere. Then you have to pour their contents into this bin and put them back. Repeat process however many fucking times we have to. Are we clear?" Allen nodded and she said, "Great. Now open that door for me."

* * *

After they had cleared all of the recycling tubs on the first floor, they ran into a problem. The first floor was the home of all of the art rooms, and so each of the tubs had been practically overflowing with paper, cardboard and plastic. And seeing that the bin they had chosen had already been half full, they had already reach capacity.

"It's fine," said Fou nonchalantly when Allen raised the issue, "We'll go up to the second floor and then I'll stomp on it."

"You'll what?" said Allen confusedly as the elevator (which they had just pressed the button for) dinged open next to them. Fou gestured for him to get into the elevator first and so he did, cramming himself into the corner so that the bin could fit in after him. His companion rolled the bin into the elevator… right onto his foot.

Allen gave a pained yelp but before he could tell Fou to roll the bin back the lift doors slid shut and they were ascending. Fou raised an eyebrow at him and asked, "What's with the sudden constipated look?"

"Bin… on… foot…" muttered Allen, grimacing, "Ow. Ow ow ow. My foot bones. Ow."

Fou rolled her eyes and snapped, "Suck it up princess. We're almost there."

The elevator slowed and with a ding the doors slid open and Fou rolled the bin backwards out into the corridor, seemingly unconcerned about Allen's agony. The British boy hobbled out after her and was glad when he saw that they weren't immediately heading on to the next room so he could rest his throbbing foot. His relief was short lived though when Fou said suddenly, "Alright. Boost me up."

Allen stared at her confusedly for a moment before saying dumbly, "What?"

Fou sighed exasperatedly and said, "Get down on the ground over her and let me use you as a step so I can get into the bin and make more room. Duh."

"That," said Allen, nonplussed, "Seems needlessly complicated. And I don't see why-"

"You can either do it willingly," growled Fou, her eyes glinting dangerously, "Or I will kick you somewhere you do _not _want to be kicked and I will _make _you fucking do it."

Allen cringed at her threat whilst think, _Dear lord, why is everyone who lives in that share house a bloody psychopath?_

Sighing, he moved forward and knelt down next to the bin, and almost immediately Fou was clambering onto his back and Allen found his spine getting and sudden reshaping. He grimaced and muttered, "Good lord, how much do you weigh?"

This was obviously the wrong thing so say because Fou kicked him roughly in the back of the head and snapped, "Oh nice! Very fucking nice! Calling me fat are you?!"

"What?! No, of I'm not!"

"Fuck you! You- Forget it. Hold on," suddenly her weight was gone and Allen was able to straighten his now deformed spine. He thought he heard audible cracks as he stretched while Fou stomped down the contents of the bin. He opened his mouth to say something to her but before any words could make their way out of his mouth, a familiar drawling, voice called out, "Che. The _moyashi_s having some trouble with duty are they?"

Allen felt his face twist itself into a displeased expression as he turned to see Kanda coming down the hall towards them, his hands shoved into his pockets. Allen frowned and said, "You are the last person I want to see right now."

"Same to you _moyashi," _Kanda snapped back before turning to Fou and saying in a bored fashion, "Why the fuck are you rooting around in a bin? You look like an oversized rat."

"Fuck you!" Fou snapped back before nimbly jumping down from the top of the bin, "It's not my fault the school can't do their own fucking garbage."

Kanda looked at her and then at Allen and smirked and started walking away, but not before the two of them heard him say, "I think I can see your future careers."

"COME BACK AND SAY THAT TO MY FACE DIPSHIT!" screamed Fou, which caused a rash of murmurs to come emanating from the classrooms around them and numerous teachers to stick their heads out the doors and shush them. Allen made some apologetic gestures at them before turning to glare in the direction that Kanda had gone and say, "One day, I am going to push him down the stairs and while he is writhing at the bottom in agony, I'm going to shave off all his hair."

Fou gave him a measured look before patting him on the shoulder and saying, "There's hope for you yet kid."

* * *

Within the hour the two of them had cleared the second floor and moved up to the third and Allen was happy to say that they were decidedly on much better terms with each other. It seemed that threatening Kanda was something that people could bond over easily.

"Are you doing NAPLAN?" asked Fou now. Allen gave her a questioning look and asked, "I don't know what that is."

Fou chuckled and said, "Well, seeing that you don't know what it is you probably don't having a bail-out note from your guardian, so you'll be doing it. It's like a stupid test thing that the government makes us do. There's a maths test and a Reading and Writing test for English. They're fucking annoying."

Allen frowned and said, "So… they're like an exam?"

"Hell no. They're just like a really big, really stupid quiz that doesn't count towards your school mark or anything."

"What's the point of them then?"

"There isn't any fucking point! That's why we hate them," said Fou with a sigh as they knocked on the door to a classroom, "Come on. Time to get the next tub."

Allen opened the door to the classroom and tried to locate the blue tub but was distracted by a flash of red and a cry of, "Allen! My sweet honeybunch has come to me!"

The British boy then found himself getting almost bowled over and winded as someone crashed into him and wrapped their arms around his neck.

"Aw, Allen, skipping class and coming all this way to find me!" said Lavi happily as he nuzzled his face into Allen's hair. Allen was unable to respond seeing that he was currently trying to suck lung fulls of air into his winded body.

"Bookmen!" snapped a familiar voice, "Stop molesting Walker and get back to your seat! That's instant detention you understand?"

Link was standing at the front of the classroom with his arms folded, looking none too pleased about what was happening. Lavi laughed and said, "It's not molestation vice principal! It's love!"

Fou was obviously trying to contain her laughter as Link berated Lavi further, who had still not let go of Allen's neck. Allen waved his arms about helplessly before managing to mutter, "Help!"

* * *

**A/N: Yay another chapter! Hopefully I'll be able to keep going with this every weekend a chapter thing. You guys might get two this weekend because I have some free time tonight and I will be writing! Till next time!**


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

**3****rd**** June 2014 **

"Dad, I really think this is a bad idea…" said Marie as he, Tiedoll, Daisya and Chaoji started unloading the contents of their van out onto the street in front of Kanda's apartment. They were trying to be as quiet as possible as they unloaded wads of good luck charms from around the world, a basket full of fruit, a box full of bells, about thirty packets of incense and a portable mini Shinto shrine Tiedoll had built the previous night. Marie was now convinced that his father needed something else to do in his life, because he obviously had too much time on his hands.

"It'll be fine darling!" said Tiedoll quietly, helping Daisya erected the shrine in front of the gate whilst Chaoji started unwrapping and placing the incense around it, "Our darling Yuu-kun needs all of our thoughts of goodwill and prayers of good luck to reach him so he can pass the upcoming exams with flying colours!"

"That's a very nice thought dad, but I don't think Kanda _wants _our thoughts and prayers," tried Marie, but Daisya interrupted, "Seriously, the kid needs all the help he can get. I don't think he's the sharpest tool in the shed so he should be _grateful _that we're calling on divine help to push him along."

Marie said nothing to this. He was the only member of the family that had semi-consistent contact with Kanda and so he was the only one who knew that Kanda had passed his exams with nothing lower than ninety per cent. He hadn't told the rest of the family this because he knew that that would lead to a bunch of distracting and slightly annoying fawning to fall down onto his foster brother's head. However, the price of not telling them was… this.

Tiedoll, Daisya and Chaoji lit the many sticks of incense and then the four of them knelt in front of the shrine and bowed their heads with their eyes closed, (this was kind of pointless for Marie but he did it anyway to make his dad happy), whilst Tiedoll said reverently, "We will now call upon the benevolent spirits of the above and below to grant our darling Yuu-kun good luck and a steady hand in the upcoming exams."

_And if the spirits are taking requests, please help him sort out his love life, _added Marie silently before joining the rest of his family in their mumbling chant where the only discernible words were, _Kanda, Yuu-kun, exams, pass, good luck._

This went on for about five minutes before Marie became aware of a sliding noise that was slowly getting louder. He hoped it was nothing but… it wasn't nothing. The gate was suddenly thrown open to reveal an enraged Yuu Kanda and the four of them were thrown back with a shriek as they were hit with a high-powered jet of freezing cold water. It turned out Kanda had brought a hose with him.

After a bit of thrashing about and trying to avoid the water stream, Daisya shouted, "ABANDON SHRINE! BACK TO THE VAN!" and they ran, Kanda chasing them with his ridiculously long hose screaming, "GET THE FUCK OFF MY STREET!"

The four of them managed to clamber inside the van, sopping wet, and with a squealing of tyres, tore out of the street and off into the late afternoon sun.

* * *

"Your family's fucking weird man," said Fou as she watched Kanda hang up the hose on the hook near the metal spiral staircase. She hadn't even known they _had _a hose.

"Che. Your family's not much fucking better," Kanda snapped back, "Isn't the only member you talk to a fucking stalker or something?"

Fou froze up at that. It didn't take a genius to figure out who Yuu Kanda had a crush on and in an awkward and fucking annoying coincidence, it just so happened that Baka-Bak's latest Stalker Crush was the same person. And even worse, unlike the other Stalker Crushes he'd had in the past, with this one he had fallen and fallen hard. Fou decided to play it cool and shrugged, saying, "I suppose he is. Not like it's any of _your _fucking business."

"Che. Whatever," sighed Kanda irritably. Fou turned to leave but Kanda then asked, "When are the dipshits downstairs getting back."

"Uh…" said Fou, thinking hard, "About a month I think… why?"

Kanda shrugged and replied, "Just curious," before he mounted the staircase and climbed up to his apartment.

* * *

"For the last time Komui, GO AWAY!" shouted Lenalee through her bedroom door, which she had barricaded shut.

"But Lenaleeeeee!" whined Komui, "I want to help you! Please let me in!"

"Brother, you can help me by going away and letting me study!" she called back, seriously annoyed. This had been going on for over half an hour and she was wasting precious studying time on him, but he was just too tenacious. He refused to leave her alone!

"Where is this rebellious attitude coming from?! My darling angel, I-" Komui cut off very suddenly and went quiet. Wondering if he had finally given up Lenalee called, "Hello? Brother?"

"It's them, isn't it?" she heard him say quietly. She sighed and asked, "What are you talking about?"

"THOSE SCOUNDRELS!" screamed Komui rather suddenly, "THEY HAVE POISONED YOU AGAINST ME HAVEN'T THEY?! DARLING SISTER, DON'T GIVE INTO ANYTHING THEY HAVE PROMISED YOU, UNDERSTAND?! I'M AFRAID THEY WILL-" what followed was a rant filled with many, _many _embarrassing sort of, but not quite, sexual references that Lenalee hoped would never be repeated ever again.

After Komui had finished ranting there was a bit of silence in which he caught his breath and Lenalee stewed in embarrassment. Suddenly, the Chinese girl's phone started ringing, and when she saw the caller ID, her heart sank. It was Lavi. Of all the possible times to call. She answered it anyway.

"_Hey Lenalady!" _came Lavi's voice through the phone, "_How goes it?"_

"Fine," replied Lenalee as Komui piped up, "Lenalee, who are you speaking to?"

_"Cool. Still studying?" _said Lavi.

"Yes. Hey Lavi, do you mind-?"

"LAVI?!" bellowed Komui from outside. Lenalee groaned and thought despairingly, _Oh no. _

"YOU MONSTROUS THUG LAVI! HOW DARE YOU TAINT MY PRECIOUS LENALEE! MY SWEET SISTER, DON'T DO IT! DON'T ALLOW HIM TO TAKE YOU!"

"_…Is that Komui?" _asked Lavi as said man continued to rant. Lenalee sighed and replied, "I don't know exactly what's wrong with him but I think he might be drunk, high, schizophrenic or all of the above."

"_I've rung at a bad time haven't I?"_

"Yeah, sorry. Can you call back a bit later?"

* * *

**4****th**** June 2014 **

The next day at school, Lenalee was in a cantankerous, fragile mood. She simply couldn't understand why Komui was suddenly being so psychotic. She had a feeling that it had to do with the fact that seeing he had so much work on at the moment, he couldn't keep as close of an eye on her as he would've liked. She understood that he would calm down as soon as the exam period was over but right now, she really couldn't stand to be around him. And this wasn't exactly helping her stress levels, which had been steadily building up over the past couple of weeks.

She wasn't usually a very fragile person, but lately she had found herself having anxiety attacks or just starting to cry out of nowhere. She was frustrated with herself for being so stupidly weak and snivelly. She bit her lip as suddenly more tears sprang into her eyes.

_No! _she told herself forcefully, _I will not cry! I will not cry!_

"Hey," said a gruff voice beside her and she jumped violently. She turned to see that Kanda had come up to stand next to her and was staring at her with the blank expression he used when he wasn't scowling, "What's the matter?"

Lenalee bit her lip again and thought about lying, but… Kanda always seemed to know when she was lying. So instead, she sighed and replied, "It's just… I'm just stressed. About… life I suppose."

_Oh no, _she thought as she felt words building up in her throat, _I'm going to go all emotional and gushy on him aren't I?_

"My brother's being stupider than usual," she blurted out, "He's trying to get me to stop being friends with you and Lavi and Allen because you're boys. And I've got this feeling that I'm going to fail these exams because I can't do anything right. Because I'm stupid and weak," she wasn't crying but she felt her body trembling slightly. She managed a rueful smile as she said, "I'm sorry. I probably seem like a snivelly idiot, don't I?"

"I think you're strong," said Kanda suddenly. Lenalee looked at him curiously and he said, "I think you're a strong woman. You'll be fine."

They stood there staring at each other for a moment before they both flushed furiously. Abruptly, Kanda spun on his heel and strode off down the hall, leaving Lenalee staring after him.

* * *

**A/N: Here's that other chapter I promised! Sorry it's a bit short but it should technically be called chapter 19.5 because it was meant to be in the last chapter but I really wanted to upload and I couldn't be bother writing another one and a half thousand words. So you guys get this instead. XD. You guys are all amazing! I seriously cannot express how grateful I am when I see your continued support and the awesome reviews I get. Thanks a bunch! And until next time!**


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

**13****th**** June 2014 **

When Fou had said that NAPLAN was a complete waste of time, she hadn't been joking. In fact, she had made an understatement. As Allen sat waiting for the final fifteen minutes to tick by of the allotted time he and the rest of his year level had been given to complete this government-issued torture, he thought mournfully of the four hours and twenty minutes he had wasted on these useless exercises, thinking of the many things he could have been doing instead of this. Okay, maybe he wasn't thinking of the _exact _things he would be doing, but he knew there was a list somewhere in his brain labelled Things I'd Rather Be Doing And Places I'd Rather Be…

His train of thought was suddenly derailed by a screwed up paper glancing off the side of his head. He looked around confusedly and saw Fou, who was sitting on the table across from his, gesturing for him to pick up the paper she had just thrown. Allen did as she asked and then unscrunched it as quietly as he could.

**I am so fucking bored, **read the paper in Fou's messy scrawl, **Entertain me would you?**

Allen frowned and then wrote a note (**How?**) before tossing the paper back at Fou. She unscrunched it, read and then wrote back, **I dunno. Talk to me about stuff.**

**Like what?**

**Your overly complicated love life. That's entertaining. **

Allen's frown deepened as he wrote back, **I don't have an overly complicated love life.**

**Sure. I can take that. I mean I've heard that the redhead's quite the riot in bed so I suppose you wouldn't want to see anyone else.**

Allen had to disguise his cry of shock and embarrassment as a coughing fit, which drew a concerned and slightly panicked look from Miranda, who had been roped in to supervise to whole ordeal. The British boy forced a smile onto his face and waited for her attention to get drawn away from him before furiously scrawling back, **You better not be talking about Lavi!**

**Duh. Which other redhead would you be fucking?**

**I AM NOT SLEEPING WITH LAVI!**

**Bull. Of course you are. So, what's he like? He tops you, right? **

**I'M NOT SLEEPING WITH HIM!**

**Sure, sure. But he's a lot bigger than you. How do you even walk?**

**I AM TELLING YOU THE TRUTH!**

**Oh. Well, fuck, that's a bit awkward. Does that mean you have a crush on my dipshit neighbour or something?**

Allen slapped a hand to his forehead and dragged it down his face before writing, **No, I do not. You are about the fifth person to make that mistake.**

**Oh, I get it now! You're not fucking the redhead but you wish you were! Don't sweat man, he digs you. I can see it.**

**I'm not going to acknowledge that with a related response. **

**HAH! That proves it! **

Before Allen could respond there was a shriek from the front of the classroom as Miranda cried, "Oh no! We've run overtime! What am I doing?! Now I'll probably cut into your lunch time! I'M SO SORRY!"

With that, she proceeded to break down into a slight nervous breakdown. As Allen stood up to go and help her, he noticed with no small amount of annoyance, Fou snickering in her seat, half at the librarian, half at him. He frowned and hissed, "This does not mean I have a complicate love life!"

"Keep telling yourself that!" Fou sniggered back.

* * *

**18****th**** June 2014 **

"Banzai!" shouted Lavi as he followed a pale and nervous Lenalee down the corridor towards the exam rooms, "Banzai! Go get 'em Lenalady! Woot!" The American glanced over his shoulder at their embarrassed/annoyed looking Japanese and British companions and said, "Come on guys, help spread the support! Lenalady needs everyone to help wish her well!"

"Maybe when you stop acting like a fuckwit, we will," snapped Kanda. Lavi poked his tongue out at him and the said to Allen pleadingly, "Come on, Allen, sweet cakes, don't fail me now!"

"Please stop coming up with vaguely perverted nicknames for me," grimaced Allen, "And Lavi, you are once again acting like a spaz."

"So?" said Lavi, placing his hands on his hips, "I was born this way baby!"

"Don't. Even. Fucking. Start," growled Kanda menacingly. Allen ignored them and continued, "You may not have noticed but Kanda and I… well, we don't really do spazzy."

"Except when you, you know, tackle and drag random strangers in the park into bushes," said Lavi with a grin, "Or doesn't that come under the category of 'spazzy'?"

Allen hesitated before saying, "Those were special circumstances."

"Your accent man," sighed Lavi dreamily, "Your accent…"

By this stage the four of them had reached the exam rooms. Lenalee turned to them and managed a small smile before saying, "Well… wish me luck!"

"Hey, you'll do great! You've nothing to worry about!" said Lavi lightly. Allen smiled at her and gave a thumbs up and said, "You'll do splendidly."

Lenalee stared at him for a while before saying, "I don't usually fangirl over your accent but that was amazing."

"Lenalady," said Lavi warningly, "Mine. No stealing."

"I know, I know," said Lenalee with a laugh. Allen frowned at them both and said, "Can you stop treating me like I'm a piece of furniture?"

"If you were a piece of furniture, you'd be a seriously plush, seriously comfy armchair," said Lavi absently. Allen shuddered slightly whilst Lenalee giggled before transferring her gaze to Kanda, who had remained silent throughout this whole exchange. When he caught her eye he quickly turned his head to the side and said gruffly, "You'll be fine."

And, to the other two boys' surprise, the usually composed Chinese girl blushed and said a little fluttery, "Well, thank guys!" before disappearing into the exam room. Allen and Lavi stared after her for a moment before turning to Kanda curiously. Lavi's emerald eye glittered mischievously as he asked the Japanese boy, "Something happen between you two, huuuuuuh?"

Kanda glared at him and snapped, "Shut the fuck up!" before storming off down the corridor. Lavi leaned in closer to Allen and whispered, "We need to come up with a shipping name for them!"

"Because Kanda will _really _appreciate that," muttered Allen as the American tore off after the sullen teenager.

* * *

**23****rd**** June 2014 **

After an exhausting week of exams, Lenalee thought she was more than deserving of a break. But no, because the Demon Kings of the Board of Education were hideously evil, she now had to spend the rest of this week on Work Experience. She realised it was an amazing experience to be going on, but all she really wanted to do was sleep.

And so, that was how she found herself standing outside of the federal court, a writhing viper pit of nerves in her stomach, checking her reflection to make sure the wind hadn't made her look like she'd been dragged through a hedge backwards. Once she was satisfied, she took a deep breath and walked into the foyer.

It was enormous, all marble and timber, and the atmosphere was sombre and very professional. She felt another stab of nerves and told herself quickly, _Calm down. Just think, Kanda is going into his first VCE exams. I'm a lot better off than he is at the moment. _

"Excuse me," said a male voice next to her. As she turned, the voice said, "I'm glad you're here on time. I'm-"

The man's voice cut off with a choke when she turned to fully face him. The owner of the voice was a young man with sandy blonde hair and black eyes, and he looked very startled to see her. So startled in fact that his face had gone pale and…

Lenalee blinked a couple of times before saying cautiously, "Um, sir? Are you alright? Something's going on with your face."

The man gave a little shriek and turned away from her abruptly. She stared at the back of his head curiously, and thought she heard him counting to ten under his breath, before he turned back to her, a big smile on his face as he stuck out his hand and said quickly, "Hello! My name's Bak Chang and I'm your guide! It's great to be able to finally meet you face to- I mean!" he cut off again, flushing to the roots of his hair, "To finally meet you! For the first time! Because we've never met before! Yeah!"

As Lenalee shook his hand, a bemused smile on her face, she thought, _Well. This certainly should be… interesting._

* * *

**A/N: I can't tell whether I feel sorry or happy for Bak-chan... probably a bit of both. Thanks for all your continued support and patience guys! You're the best! 'Til next time!**


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

**30****th**** June 2014 **

"Wait, wait, wait," said Allen, jamming his phone between his shoulder and his ear whilst he poured his tea, "What do you mean you had to stop Kanda from punching your employer?"

"_Just what I said," _came Lenalee's reply from the other end of the phone, "_I texted Kanda to come meet me for coffee on my last day of work experience and he did, and came to meet me in the lobby of the court. When I came out to meet him with Mr Chang, he suddenly got that glint in his eyes…"_

"Which glint?" asked Allen, making his way out into the lounge room.

"_The I'm-Going-To-Brutally-Murder-You Glint," _replied Lenalee, "_Then he just started advancing on Mr Chang, who looked terrified, and I had to get him out of there before the situation went into meltdown and the whole thing turned into a national incident."_

"Any explanation as to _why _Kanda suddenly decided it was Mr Chang's time to leave this earth?" asked Allen, already kind of knowing the reason. He heard Lenalee sigh before she replied, "_I have no idea. He wouldn't tell me after we left. Just muttered some stuff in Japanese under his breath. He's so frustrating!"_

Allen said nothing to this. He had thought it had been a particularly cruel twist of fate for Bak Chang that Lenalee had wound up being the student he was to be mentoring for work experience. Allen had warned him not to make any passes at Lenalee, lest he be murdered by the Green Monster taking the shape of an exceedingly bad-tempered Japanese boy.

"Why am I not in any way surprised that Kanda acted like this?" sighed Allen, taking a sip of his tea. He heard Lenalee chuckle and reply, "_True. It does seem to be a hobby of his to just attack people who annoy him in the tiniest way."_

_That wasn't a tiny annoyance for him, _thought Allen grimly, _Please God, bring forth salvation for poor Bak Chang's soul._

"Well, at least it's over and now-" Allen was interrupted by a tapping noise behind him. He groaned and looked over his shoulder, and sure enough, there was the sparkling green eyed, red haired American he had grown quite accustomed to seeing on his balcony. He sighed and said into the phone, "Lenalee, can I call you back? Lavi's breaking into my house again."

"_I love how nonchalantly you say that," _said Lenalee with a laugh, _"But he's probably there to pick you up."_

"Pick me up?" said Allen suspiciously, frowning.

"Oh nothing," said Lenalee vaguely, before hanging up. Allen frowned at the phone once before putting it down and walking over to let the redhead in.

"Happy holidays dude!" exclaimed Lavi happily, throwing his arms around the white haired boy. Allen patted him on the shoulder before shrugging him off and saying, "Happy holidays to you too. Lenalee just told me that you're picking me up for something. Care to explain what she meant?"

"Oh yeah!" said Lavi, "I kind of forgot to tell you that you're coming down to the beach with Kanda, Lenalee and me! And seeing that Kanda's waiting downstairs in the car, you should probably go and pack your things."

"What?!" exclaimed Allen, "Hold on… Lavi! You can't just decide these things yourself! How long are you planning for us to be gone?!"

"Let's see…" said Lavi thoughtfully, "Ten days? Give or take."

"_Ten- _Wha- _Ten bloody days?! _Lavi!"

"What? It's only two weeks minus two days!"

"It's the middle of winter!"

"So? We've got an open fire at my beach house!"

"No. Not happening. I am _not_ going. And this time, you won't be able to convince me otherwise."

* * *

"I can't believe you actually tried to say no," giggled Lenalee once Lavi had recounted the story to her after they had gone to pick her up. Allen, sitting in the backseat with her, muttered something under his breath before saying out loud, "What I'm concerned about is the fact that no one in this car has a proper license."

"Calm the fuck down _moyashi," _snapped Kanda as he concentrated on making a U-turn, "Both of us can drive so there shouldn't be a problem unless you fucking make one."

"Oh really? So what happens if we get pulled over by, oh I don't know, _the police? _You could get arrested!"

"Aw, thanks for the concern honey bunch!" said Lavi, turning around in the front seat to grin at the British boy, "But it's all cool! Yuu and I already look like college students so we won't arouse suspicion. We're being _shneaky!"_

"Call me Yuu one more time and I will crash this car on your side. I swear I will," growled their irate driver. Lavi fell silent after that.

"…Right. I am mildly surprised though. I thought seeing that Kanda's behind the wheel we'd tearing through the streets of Melbourne like a bunch of hoons. Don't tell you're actually good at driving Kanda."

"Change of plans. I'm crashing it into the _moyashi's _side."

"But that's the same side I'm on!" said Lavi poutily. Kanda shot him a glare and snapped, "Two birds with one fucking stone then."

"You seem a little grumpier than usual Kanda," said Lenalee with a smile, "Were you coerced into this as well?"

Kanda said nothing but Allen could see the displeased set of his jaw. He only just managed to supress the smug smirk threatening to creep its way onto his face, all too aware of the Japanese youth's steely grey gaze glancing every now and then into the rear-view mirror to shoot him suspicious glares.

* * *

An hour, 80 kilometres, numerous arguments, many ugly buildings and several illegal driving manoeuvres later, the concrete city environment suddenly gave way to green fields dotted with sheep and shielded by lines of pine trees. It was slightly similar to the British countryside Allen was used to, but strangely different at the same time. He felt a sudden, sharp pang of homesickness. However, he was quickly distracted by the feral grin that had abruptly spread across Kanda's face as he said in a low voice, "Finally…"

"Uh oh," said Lavi concernedly, sitting up a little straighter in his seat, "Have both of you got your seatbelts on?"

"Why? What's happening?" asked Allen, feeling a little nervous at the edgy tone in Lavi's voice. He glanced at Lenalee, but she looked equally as confused. Lavi cleared his throat and said, "Well, you see, all that driving that Yuu just did… that was his _responsible _driving. We're about to see his normal driving and, well… let's just say a monster is about to be unleashed."

"Shut up," said Kanda, though that grin was still plastered across his face, "My driving is fine."

"Your driving is fu-" started Lavi, but was interrupted by Kanda suddenly slamming on the accelerator. The three passengers were immediately pushed back into their seats as the car started gaining speed dangerously.

"Oh lord," said Allen weakly as another car came into view. Kanda jerked the wheel to the right sharply, sending Allen and Lavi crashing into the window and Lenalee crashing into Allen. A few muttered sorrys were said, but then Kanda jerked the wheel back to the left, sending the three passengers crashing in the other direction. Allen thought he heard Kanda mutter something that sounded like, "_Watashi no hokori no taberu," _as the driver of the other car honked at them angrily, before they began to gain speed again. The scenery flashed by them in a green and brown blur and somehow Allen found himself clinging desperately to an equally terrified Lenalee. Lavi had managed to grab onto the handle set into the roof of the car and was bracing his other hand on the seat next to him. Allen couldn't see his expression, but he knew it would either be one of terror or, knowing the American, one of excitement. Up ahead, Allen could see a roundabout, a couple of cars making their way slowly around it.

"Please dear lord, I know I have committed many sins in my life…" Allen started but cut off as Kanda went hurtling around the roundabout, tyres screeching, gravity causing the two backseat passengers to once again go crashing into the window.

"This is it…" said Allen quietly before screaming along with Lenalee, "WE'RE GOING TO BLOODY DIE!"

"We're not gonna die!" said Kanda with a tone as close to happiness as Allen had ever heard him use as they went speeding down a turnoff road. There was sudden flash of red and blue and the sound of a siren blasted through the air. Kanda sneered and slowed slightly as his three passengers turned to survey the scene behind them. A white police car was tailing along behind them, a furious-looking policemen behind the wheel, gesturing for them to pull over.

"Blimey," said Allen shakily, "It's the Mornington Peninsula Rozzers."

"Oh my god that was _perfect!" _said Lavi, managing an enormous grin despite their near-death experience. Before he could say anymore, Kanda growled, "Che. Doesn't look like they'll leave us the fuck alone."

"Well you _did _almost cause a major traffic accident," said Lenalee quietly. Lavi sighed and said, "Well. Only one thing to do," he let loose another grin, "_Pedal to the metal Yuu!"_

* * *

_Still breathing, _thought Allen as they got out of the car, _Nothing's broken. Not dead. Not in jail. This was a slight success. Slightly._

Through some infeasible, highly dangerous driving techniques they had managed to loose the tailing police car and had just pulled into the drive of Lavi's beach house in the quaint little peninsula town of Flinders. If Allen hadn't been going through major Post Traumatic Stress, he might have actually enjoyed taking a look at the town.

"Well, we're here," said Lavi, heading up the porch stairs towards the beige weather-board house. Kanda followed him, looking unimpressed, and Lenalee and Allen followed after on wobbly legs. The front door was located near the back of the house, down a long wooden deck. Lavi was currently standing in front of the door, unlocking it. Once it was open, they all stepped inside and were immediately accosted by the pleasant smell of seagrass matting.

The interior was dim, mainly because of the fact that all the blinds were down. But once Lavi started raising them, Allen got a good look at it. The floors were seagrass, except for the floor of the dining room he could see beyond the lounge room. The lounge was furnished with seriously ugly couched that surrounded a coffee table, a TV and an open fireplace. Allen moved into the hallway, on the other side of which he could see a kitchen painted in many shades of brown. Further along the hallway he discovered a bedroom with a blue-sheeted double bed inside it. Across from this bedroom were a laundry, a toilet and a small bathroom. The next room was another, larger room with another double bed in it, this one white sheeted. Finally, at the end of the hall was a room that was obviously a kid's room, stacked with boxes full of old toys, a bunk bed jammed into one corner.

"Lenalee can take the white room at the end!" Lavi's voice called down the hall, "Kanda's in the blue room! Allen and I are sharing!"

Allen sighed. He was just glad that they had arrived here without getting arrested and/or killed by Kanda's dangerous escaped lunatic driving.

* * *

**A/N: Well this was fun! I'm really looking forward to writing the next couple of chapters. Hopefully they will satisfy the Laven fans! Thanks for continued support! 'Til next time!**


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